UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 


Class 


WORKS   OF   DR.   H.   B.    BASHORE 

PUBLISHED    BY 

JOHN   WILEY  &  SONS. 


The  Sanitation  of  a  Country  House. 

i2mp,  vii -f  102  pages,  16  full-page  half-tone  illus- 
trations. Cloth,  $i  oo. 

Outlines  of  Practical  Sanitation. 

For  Students,  Physicians,  and  Sanitarians.  i2mo, 
vi -f- 208  pages,  42  illustrations,  many  half-tones. 
Cloth,  $1.25  net. 


PUBLISHED  BY  THE  F.    A.    DAVIS  CO. 
117  WEST  42o  STREET,  NEW  YORK. 

Outlines  of  Rural  Hygiene. 

For  Physicians,  Students,  and  Sanitarians.  Illus- 
trated with  20  engravings,  mostly  original.  5^2  x 
7%  inches.  84  pages.  Bound  in  extra  cloth,  75 
cents  net. 


Outlines  of 

Practical    Sanitation 

For   Students,   Physicians 
and   Sanitarians 


By 

Dr.    Harvey   B.    Bashore 

Inspector  for  Pennsylvania  Department  of  Health 
Author  of  "Outlines  of  Rural  Hygiene"  and  "The  Sanitation  of 
Country  House  " 


;  Through  the  Ages  one  increasing  purpose  runs, 
And  the  thoughts  of  men  are  widened  with  the 
process  of  the  Suns." — Tennyson. 


With  Forty -two  Illustrations 


TKE 

First     Edition 

First  Thousand 


New  York 

John    Wiley   &    Sons 

London  :    Chapman    &    Hall,    Limited 
1906 


SENERAL 


Copyright,  1906 

BY 
HARVEY  B.  BASHORE 


ROBERT   DRUMMOND,    PRINTER,    NEW   YORK 


TO 

2>r,  Benjamin  !Hee  of  Pennsylvania, 

WHO    FOR    TWENTY    YEARS,    HAMPERED    BY    LACK    OF    MEANS 

AND   UNWISE    LAWS,    GUARDED    WITH    UNTIRING   ZEAL 

THE   HEALTH    OF   A    GREAT    STATE, 

THIS  BOOK  Is  MOST  AFFECTIONATELY 
DEDICATED 


PREFACE 


No  excuse  need  be  offered  for  a  new  work  on 
Sanitation,  for  the  rapid  progress  that  is  being  made 
in  this  science  warrants  a  new  book  or  a  revision 
almost  every  year. 

In  the  following  work  the  author  has  departed  from 
the  beaten  track  of  the  usual  sanitary  text-book,  and 
subjects  are  introduced  which  are  of  interest  not 
only  to  health  officials  but  to  the  taxpayer  and  the 
citizen;  for  example,  the  topics  of  milk-  and  food- 
supplies,  car  sanitation,  etc.,  are  subjects  which  are 
beginning  to  excite  unusual  interest  everywhere  and 
anywhere. 

The  work  has  been  drawn  from  many  sources  and 
the  author  has  tried  to  give  credit  where  credit  is 
due,  but  special  reference  should  be  made  to  the 
reports  of  the  American  Public  Health  Association. 
Much  obligation  does  the  author  owe  to  his  father, 
Dr.  D.  W.  Bashore,  for  careful  revision  of  the  manu- 
script and  proof,  and  assistance  in  many  other  ways. 

WEST  FAIRVIEW,  PA. 
July  23,  1906. 

iii 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER   I 

HABITATIONS i 

Construction.  Plumbing.  Ventilation  and  Heating. 
Artificial  Illumination.  The  Back  Yard.  Hospitals, 
Prisons,  and  Asylums.  Theatres. 

CHAPTER   II 

WATER-SUPPLY 30 

Sources  of  Supply.  Quality  and  Quantity.  Storage 
and  Distribution.  Purification.  The  Examination  of 
Water  and  Water-supplies. 

CHAPTER   III 

THE  COLLECTION  AND  DISPOSAL  OF  WASTE 56 

Liquid  Waste  or  Sewage — Sewerage  Systems.  The  Ul- 
timate Disposal  of  Sewage.  Solid  Waste  and  its  Collec- 
tion.. Disposal  of  Garbage.  Disposal  of  Ashes  and 
Street-sweepings.  Disposal  of  Rubbish.  Question  as  to 
Best  Method  of  Disposal  of  Solid  Waste. 

CHAPTER   IV 

MILK-SUPPLY 74 

The  Cows.  The  Stable.  The  Milker  and  Milking 
Utensils.  The  Milk.  Transportation  and  Distribution. 
The  Adulteration  of  Milk.  Bacteriological  Examination. 

CHAPTER  V 

FOOD-SUPPLIES 85 

Bread.  Fruits  and  Vegetables.  Oysters,  Fish,  and 
Meat.  The  Adulteration  of  Foods. 


vi  Contents 


CHAPTER  VI 

PAGE 

SCHOOL  SANITATION 95 

The  Building.  Seating.  Heating  and  Ventilation. 
Lighting.  Water-supply.  Toilet-room  and  Privy. 
Work  and  Play.  Medical  Inspection. 

CHAPTER   VII 

CAR  SANITATION 109 

Furnishing  and  Cleaning.  Ventilation  and  Heating. 
Disposal  of  Excreta.  Drinking-water.  Street-cars. 

CHAPTER  VIII 

THE  CAUSE  AND  PREVENTION  OF  CONTAGIOUS  AND  INFEO 

TIOUS  DISEASES 119 

Smallpox.  Measles.  Scarlet  Fever.  Whooping- 
cough.  Diphtheria.  Typhus  Fever.  Cerebrospinal  Fever. 
Tuberculosis.  Typhoid  Fever.  Cholera.  Malarial  Fevers. 
Yellow  Fever.  The  Plague.  Hydrophobia.  Anthrax. 
Glanders.  Tetanus. 

CHAPTER   IX 

VITAL  STATISTICS 140 

Registration  of  Births.  Registration  of  Disease. 
Registration  of  Deaths. 

CHAPTER   X 

MUNICIPAL  SANITATION 147 

History.  Overcrowding.  Street  Cleaning.  Public 
Baths.  Public  Parks  and  Playgrounds.  The  Smoke 
Nuisance.  The  Spitting  Nuisance. 

CHAPTER  XI 

RURAL  AND  SUBURBAN  SANITATION 166 

General  Considerations.  Dwellings.  Water-supply. 
Waste  Disposal. 

CHAPTER   XII 

PERSONAL  HYGIENE 187 

Heredity.        Food.        Exercise.        Clothing.        Bathing. 
The  Simple  Life. 


Outlines  of  Practical   Sanitation 

CHAPTER  I 
Habitations 

ONSTRUCTION .  The  first  thing  of  sanitary 
importance  about  any  building  is  to 
have  a  proper  foundation:  a  foundation 
that  is  impervious  to  the  ground  air  and 
ground  moisture,  or,  more  popularly  speaking,  the 
soil  dampness;  for  a  damp  soil  is  always  cold  and  a 
person  living  in  a  damp  house  lacks  free  evaporation 
from  the  skin  and  consequently  is  more  liable  to 
"take  cold."  Phthisis  is  one  of  the  diseases,  too,  which 
especially  bears  a  certain  relation  to  soil  dampness, 
We  now  know  that  this  disease  is  caused  by  a  specific 
germ,  yet  there  is  no  doubt  but  that  soil  dampness  is 
one  of  the  several  predisposing  factors.  Of  rheuma- 
tism, although  we  are  in  doubt  as  to  its  exact  aetiology, 
we  also  feel  certain  that  one  of  the  great  causes,  likely 
only  a  predisposing  one,  is  exposure  to  cold  and  damp- 
ness. The  complaint  known  as  muscular  rheumatism 


2  Outlines  of  Practical  Sanitation 

is  excessively  prevalent  in  localities  having  damp  and 
illy  drained  cellars  and  foundations.  Diphtheria  is  a 
common  disease  in  houses  with  wet  foundations; 
easily  explained  by  the  experimental  fact  that  diph- 
theria germs  live  for  a  long  time  on  the  walls  of  a 
damp  cellar. 

With  these  facts  in  view  it  is  of  the  first  import- 
ance that  we  construct  foundations  impervious  to 
moisture  and  the  ground  air,  for  the  air  in  the  soil 
differs  in  composition  from  the  atmosphere  and  is 
not  suitable  for  breathing  purposes.  So  the  cardinal 
point  in  foundation  building  is  not  a  support  for  the 
superstructure,  but  a  means  to  keep  soil  air  and 
moisture  out  of  the  house. 

There  are  several  ways  of  constructing  a  foundation 
so  that  it  fills  these  requirements:  one  of  the  best, 
perhaps  the  best  plan,  is  that  adopted  in  New  York 
City.  After  the  cellar  has  been  excavated  to  the 
required  size  and  depth,  a  solid  bed  of  concrete  a 
foot  or  two  thick  is  put  down  on  the  bottom,  and 
over  this  a  damp-proof  course  of  tarred  felt  and  bur- 
lap is  laid  in  hot  pitch.  On  this  as  a  base  the  walls 
are  built,  and  on  the  outside  of  the  walls  a  layer 
of  tarred  felt  is  laid  in  hot  pitch,  as  is  shown  in  Fig.  i. 
A  foundation  constructed  in  this  way  is  absolutely 
proof  against  any  trouble  from  the  soil. 

The  material  of  which  a  house  is  built  is  an  economic 
question  rather  than  a  sanitary  one.  A  brick  house, 
especially  an  unpainted  one,  allows  natural  ventila- 
tion through  the  walls;  on  account  of  the  porosity 


Habitations 


3 


of  the  bricks  it  is  a  poor  conductor  of  heat,  and  is 
consequently  warmer  in  winter  and  cooler  in  summer 
than  a  wooden  one.  The  construction,  whatever  the 
material,  and  this  is  really  more  important  than 


FIG.  i. — A  Method  of  Constructing  a  Foundation. 

the  question  of  material,  should  be  such  as  to  ad- 
mit of  the  greatest  amount  of  sunshine  and  light 
in  the  greatest  number  of  rooms,  though  on  a  city 
lot  one  is  sometimes  much  hampered  by  adjoining 
buildings. 


Outlines  of  Practical  Sanitation 


PLUMBING 

With  the  house  properly  constructed,  the  most  im- 
portant point  yet  remaining  is  the  arrangement  for 
the  removal  of  household  waste — and  this,  in  the 
city,  is  by  means  of  water  service,  necessitating  a 
system  of  pipes,  closets,  baths,  and  sinks,  known  as 
plumbing — sanitary  plumbing  when  properly  arranged. 
The  principal  requirement  about  plumbing  is  that 
it  does  the  work  intended — the  speedy  removal  of 
waste  and  the  exclusion  of  sewer  air  from  the  house. 
In  Fig.  2  is  shown  a  diagrammatic  section  of  a  house 
with  pipes  and  fixtures  arranged  in  the  proper  manner. 

All  plumbing  work  should  be  thorough — smooth, 
perfect  joints  and  no  sharp  angles — above  all  else  it 
should  be  open  so  that  all  parts  may  be  freely  in- 
spected if  necessary.  The  vertical  pipe,  known  as 
the  soil-pipe,  should  always  extend  and  open  beyond 
the  roof  and  the  house-drain  should  always  be  trapped 
before  its  entrance  into  the  sewer;  this  main  inter- 
cepting or  house-trap  is  generally  placed  immediately 
inside  the  foundation  wall,  and,  although  customarily 
used  in  cities  with  the  combined  system  of  sewerage, 
its  omission  is  advised  by  many  when  the  separate 
system  (see  Chapter  III)  is  used,  on  account  of  the 
fact  that  it  obstructs  the  flow  of  air  into  the  sewers, 
which  is  so  necessary  for  sewage  purification.  In 
most  cities  a  fresh-air  inlet,  extending  from  the  edge 
of  the  pavement,  opens  into  the  house-drain  on  the 


Habitations  5 

house  side  of  the  main  trap,  thus  allowing  a  free  cir- 
culation of  air  through  the  pipes;  this  plan  of  having 
a  fresh-air  inlet,  though  theoretically  perfect,  is  rather 
defectiye^practically^  for  the  opening  of  the  pipe  is 
quite  often  stopped  up  with  dirt. 


HcttoTrap 

FIG.  2. — Section  of  a  House,  showing  Plumbing  System. 

In  order  to  prevent  sewer  air  from  getting  into  the 
house  from  failure  of  the  main  trap  to  work,  or  in 
absence  of  the  main  trap,  every  basin,  closet,  or  bath 
has  its  individual  trap;  and  right  here  it  may  be 
well  to  state  that  ajrap  is  _  simply  ajbend  in  the  pipe 


Outlines  of  Practical  Sanitation 


which  holds  water  enough  to  prevent  the  gases  from 
passing  into  the  house.  There  are  many  forms  of 
traps,  the  simplest  and  one  of  the  best  being  the 
S-trap  shown  in  the  drawing  (Fig.  3). 

If  a  fixture  is  not  much  used,  sometimes  the  water 
evaporates  and  the  seal  is  broken;  this  is  avoided  by 
having  a  trap  with  considerable 
depth  of  water-seal;  again,  the 
seal  is  sometimes  broken  by  "sy- 
phonage"  from  a  rush  of  water 
down  a  near-by  soil-pipe  from  a 
higher  fixture;  to  prevent  this 
vent-pipes  are  sometimes  used, 
which  are  nothing  more  than 
ventilating-pipes  which  open  into 
the  top  of  the  traps;  the  vent- 
pipe  adds  additional  expense 
and  also  favors  evaporation  of 
the  water-seal,  but  its  good 
points  probably  outweigh  its  defects. 

The  house  fixtures,  water-closets,  wash-stands, 
baths,  etc.,  should  be  all  made  with  exposed  plumb- 
ing. Formerly  any  dark  corner  or  closet  was  used 
for  such  purposes,  but  modern  sanitation  demands 
that  everything  be  open  for  inspection  and  cleaning. 
Fig.  4,  which  shows  a  picture  of  a  modern  bathroom 9 
gives  an  idea  of  what  up-to-date  plumbing  is  able 
to  do.  Water-closets  should  combine  simplicity  with 
thorough  flushing  after  use  and  proper  refilling. 
The  simplest  form  is  the  hopper  closet,  which  con- 


FIG.  3. — S-trap. 


— 


Habitations  9 

sists  of  a  bowl  and  an  ordinary  trap.  Modifications 
of  this,  which  are  generally  used  at  present,  are 
the  wash-down  and  wash-out  closets,  both  of  which 


FIG.  50. — Wash-down  Closet. 


have  the  water-seal  in  the  bowl  instead  of  under- 
neath it.  Pictures  of  these  two  forms  are  shown  in 
Figs.  5#  and  56.  The  old-fashioned  pan,  valve,  and 


lo  Outlines  of  Practical  Sanitation 

plunger  closets  ar?.  only  of  historic  interest  and  have 
no  place  in  modern  plumbing.  It  is  almost  need- 
less to  state  that  all  water-closets  should  be  flushed 
by  a  separate  cistern.  Wash-stands  and  baths  should, 
of  course,  all  be  trapped,  but  it  is  a  good  rule  to 


FIG.  56. — Wash-out  Closet. 

have  as  few  sewerage  fixtures  as  possible  in  the  house 
— simplicity  is  the  watchword  in  plumbing. 

The  Peppermint  Test. — The  tests  for  plumbing  work 
consists  in  putting  into  the  pipes  some  volatile 
substance,  the  odor  of  which,  escaping  from  any 
defect  in  the  pipes,  is  readily  detected;  oil  of  pepper- 
mint is  the  substance  generally  used.  Two  to  four 
ounces  of  peppermint  oil  are  poured  into  the  main 


Habitations  1 1 

soil-pipe  on  the  roof — the  other  pipe  openings,  if 
there  are  any,  being  closed — and  is  followed  by  a 
bucket  of  hot  water  and  the  opening  of  the  pipe 
then  plugged  up.  This  work  should  be  done  by 
some  person  (other  than  the  inspector)  who  should 
not  come  inside  the  house  until  the  inspection  is 
finished;  if  the  test  is  carefully  made  any  leak  will 
be  detected  without  difficulty. 

The  smoke  test  is  also  used  to  discover  plumbing 
defects.  It  consists  in  forcing  smoke  into  the  sys- 
tem of  pipes,  the  ends,  of  course,  being  plugged,  and 
the  smoke  appearing  wherever  a  leak  exists. 

VENTILATION  AND  HEATING 

Ventilation  consists  in  the  means  of  furnishing  suf- 
ficient pure  air  for  breathing  purposes.  It  has  been 
found  that  we  need  about  3000  cubic  feet  of  fresh  air 
every  hour,  in  order  to  prevent  an  undue  diminution 
of  oxygen  and  an  increase  of  carbon  dioxide,  and  when 
we  do  not  get  sufficient  amount  we  suffer  in  various 
ways — in  lowered  vitality  and  in  death,  as  has  been 
proved  by  the  crowding  of  a  number  of  people  into 
a  small  closed  room.  This  lowered  vitality,  brought 
about  by  continued  bad  ventilation,  leads  to  tubercu- 
losis— the  one  great  disease  of  defective  ventilation. 
People  who  have  been  accustomed  to  live  in  the  open 
air  are  especially  prone  to  this  disease  when  cooped 
up  in  houses.  Dr.  A.  N.  Bell  tells  the  story  of  an 
Indian  agent  who  many  years  ago  built  a  number 


i  2          Outlines  of  Practical  Sanitation 

of  houses  for  his  wards  and  persuaded  them  to  occupy 
them.  Not  long  after  he  left  on  a  two  years'  leave 
of  absence;  on  his  return  he  found  the  Indians  again 
living  in  their  teepees  and  his  houses  used  for  store- 
rooms. On  inquiry  the  Indian  reply  was  "Too 
much  house;  spit  blood."  Only  a  story,  but  a  story 
with  scientific  truth  behind  it. 

This  poor  physical  condition,  due  to  defective  ven- 
tilation, is  seen  not  only  in  city  tenements,  but  I 
have  noticed  it,  and  others  have  called  attention 
to  the  same  thing,  in  the  mountain  districts  of  Penn- 
sylvania, and  I  suppose  the  same  condition  exists  in 
other  places.  This  class  of  people,  breathing  natu- 
rally the  purest  air  in  God's  country, .  show  the  sallow, 
sickly  appearance  of  defective  light  and  oxygen. 
The  reason  seems  to  be  that  during  the  long  winter 
months  they  are  almost  continually  cooped  up  in 
small  houses  lounging  behind  the  stove,  and  at  night 
sleeping  in  small,  low  rooms,  closed  and  unventilated, 
in  order  to  keep  out  the  cold. 

The  trouble  caused  by  deficient  ventilation  is 
brought  about  mostly  by  lack  of  oxygen  and  increase 
of  carbon  dioxide,  although  other  factors,  for  example, 
the  organic  materials  of  the  expired  air,  are  probably 
at  work  to  bring  about  the  result.  The  amount  of 
carbon  dioxide  in  the  atmosphere  is  about  .04  per 
cent  and  when  this  gets  to  .08  per  cent  the  air  is 
totally  unfit  for  breathing,  so  by  this  we  have  a 
ready  means  of  determining  the  purity  of  the  air. 

As  has  been  said,  an  adult  needs  about  3000  cubic 


Habitations  1 3 

feet  of  fresh  air  every  hour,  and  to  get  this  and  remove 
the  foul  air  is  the  aim  of  ventilation.,  Inasmuch  as 
the  air  in  a  room  can  be  changed  about  three  times 
an  hour,  a  room  of  1000  cubic  feet  is  the  amount  of 
air-space  needed  for  one  individual.  This  air-space 
can,  of  course,  be  diminished  or  increased  according 
to  the  permanency  of  occupancy,  labor,  etc.  In  an 
ordinary  dwelling  600  to  800  cubic  feet  of  space 
should  be  allowed  for  each  occupant,  and  in  public 
buildings  used  only  for  a  short  time  300  cubic  feet 
or  even  less  is  sufficient,  considering  that  the  air 
can  be  changed  very  often. 

While  in  the  warmer  climate  of  the  South  ven- 
tilation is  a  factor  to  be  considered  alone,  in  the 
colder  climate  of  the  North  ventilation  and  'heating 
go  hand-in-hand,  and  this  brings  us  to  the  methods 
of  heating  which  are  considered  with  their  ven- 
tilating effects.  In  house-warming  we  endeavor  to 
bring  the  temperature  to  about  68°  F.,  which  seems 
to  be  the  normal  for  most  healthy  people.  There  is 
a  great  tendency  to  keep,  houses  entirely  too  warm, 
the  result  of  which  is  the  undue  prevalence  of  chronic 
catarrhal  inflammations  of  the  mucous  membranes 
of  the  throat  and  nose.  If  the  heat  is  moist  a  much 
lower  temperature  will  suffice,  and  for  this  reason 
English  houses  seem  cold,  and  are  cold,  to  Americans 
coming  from  a  dry  climate,  where  they  are  accus- 
tomed to,  and  where  a  higher  temperature  is  actually 
necessary.  The  various  methods  of  heating  are  open., 
fireplaces, stoves,  hot-air  furnaces,  hot  water,  and  steam. 


14         Outlines  of  Practical  Sanitation 

The  Open  Fireplace.  —  The  open  fireplace,  which 
was  the  primitive  mode  of  heating,  has  the  objection 
of  yielding  only  a  small  part  of  the  fuel  value  as 
heat,  only  about  ten  per  cent.  As  they  give  out 
practically  only  radiant  heat  they  warm  only  the 
surface  of  objects  facing  the  fire;  if,  however,  the 
fireplaces  are  faced  with  iron  or  steel,  or  a  Franklin 
stove  used,  we  get  some  convected  heat  from  the 
heated  iron;  or,  better  still,  if  the  back  of  the  grate 
is  so  arranged  that  a  current  of  air  passes  behind 
the  fire  we  may  get  even  twenty-five  per  cent  of 
the  fuel  value;  this  is  accomplished  by  what  is  known 
as  a  vent ilat ing-grate.  Open  grates  are  not  much 
used  for  general  heating,  but  only  as  an  adjunct  to 
other  methods;  they  are,  however,  of  exceeding 
value  as  ventilators  and  should  occupy  a  place  in 
every  house.  A  room  which  has  an  open  fireplace 
does  not  get  that  peculiar  "stuffy"  condition  during 
occupancy  which  it  is  likely  to  get  without  one. 

Stoves. — Stoves  were  the  next  step  in  the  method 
of  heating  and  a  great  step  it  was  too,  for  stoves  fur- 
nish about  seventy-five  per  cent  of  the  fuel  energy 
as  heat,  but  they  do  not  allow  for  ventilation,  so 
fresh  air  has  to  be  supplied  in  some  other  way — very 
often  it  is  a  neglected  way;  the  air  of  stove-heated 
rooms  is  likely  to  become  superheated  and  too  dry. 
In  a  good  many  of  the  older  houses  in  some  parts 
of  the  country  there  are  open  fireplaces — boarded 
up  since  wood  has  become  scarce,  and  stoves  used 
for  heating.  Now,  in  a  case  of  this  kind,  if  the  fire- 


Habitations  15 

place    is    left    open    entirely    or   partially    ventilation 
takes  place,  and  stove-heating  becomes  fairly  effective. 

Oil-  and  Gas-stoves. — Oil-  and  gas-stoves  are  con- 
siderably used  at  present  and  yield  a  great  quantity 
•of  heat  quickly  and  at  moderate  cost.  It  must  not 
be  forgotten,  however,  that  these  stoves  use  the 
oxygen  of  a  room  and  give  off  carbonic-oxide  gas; 
so  that  when  used  in  closed  apartments,  there  must 
be  means  for  the  introduction  of  plenty  of  fresh 
air. 

Hot-air  Heating.  —  The  next  improvement  in 
house-heating  was  to  put  the  stove  in  the  cellar, 
surround  it  with  an  envelope  of  galvanized  iron, 
into  which  fresh  air  could  enter,  and  run  a  number 
of  pipes  from  the  top  of  the  hood  to  the  rooms  above; 
this,  then,  was  the  hot-air  furnace,  which  is  a  very 
effective  method  of  heating  and  ventilating  if  properly 
arranged.  The  furnace,  of  course,  must  be  gas- 
tight  and  the  cold-air  must  be  taken  from  the  out- 
side of  the  house.  I  heard  of  a  man  who  had  the 
cold-air  shaft  open  directly  into  the  cellar,  for  the 
reason  that  it  would  take  less  coal  to  heat  the  already 
partially  heated  air  of  the  cellar;  he  forgot,  probably 
didn't  know,  that  cellar  air,  or  rather  ground  air, 
was  unfit  for  breathing.  The  cold-air  pipe  should 
be  thoroughly  air-tight  for  its  whole  length,  and  the 
outside  opening  should  be  protected  with  wire  netting. 
With  proper  construction  and  care,  and  with  a  good 
furnace  placed  on  the  proper  side,  from  which  the 
cold  winds  generally  come — and  with  pipes  having 


1 6          Outlines  of  Practical  Sanitation 

sufficient  elevation — a  hot-air  furnace  will  yield  a 
splendid  system  for  furnishing  pure,  heated  air. 

Hot-water  Heating. — Hot-water  heating  consists  in 
circulating  hot  water  in  a  series  of  pipes  and  radi- 
ators, and  depends  for  its  action  on  the  expansive 
force  of  heated  water.  We  have  both  high-  and 
low-pressure  systems — low  where  the  top  of  the 
system  is  open  to  the  air;  in  this  the  temperature 
of  the  water  reaches  only  212°  F.  In  the  high- 
pressure  system  the  top  is  closed  and  the  water 
is  heated  up  to  about  300°  F.  Hot-water  systems 
when  well  put  up  are  very  economical,  but  present 
the  disadvantage  of  the  water  freezing  in  the  pipes 
if  the  fire  should  go  out;  and  with  the  radiators 
placed  directly  in  the  room  there  is  no  means  of 
ventilation  except  from  the  door,  windows,  or  open 
fireplaces.  The  proper  method  of  using  hot- water 
coils  will  be  described  under  the  next  subject. 

Steam-heating. — Steam-heating  consists  in  circu- 
lating steam  through  pipes  and  radiators  placed  in 
the  various  rooms.  In  this,  as  in  hot  water,  there 
are  two  systems,  high  and  low  pressure.  The  low 
pressure — only  three  or  four  pounds — is  the  one 
used  in  private  dwellings.  When  a  steam  apparatus 
is  put  in  properly,  there  is  freedom  from  the  noise 
of  the  condensing  steam,  and  it  is  very  economical; 
but  with  the  radiators  placed  directly  in  the  room, 
there  is  no  provision  for  ventilation.  Although  hot- 
water  and  steam  systems  as  commonly  used  in 
private  houses  do  not  make  allowance  for  ventilation, 


Habitations  17 

there  are  two  methods  by  which  the  introduction 
of  pure  air  may  be  accomplished — the  direct-indirect 
and  the  indirect  method. 


FIG.  6. — Heating  by  Direct-indirect  Radiation. 

Heating  by  Indirect  or  Direct-indirect  Radiation. — 
In    the    latter    method    (Fig.    6)   outside    air    enters 


i  8          Outlines  of  Practical  Sanitation 

through  a  wall  opening  and  passes  over  the  radi- 
ator and  thence  into  the  room;  the  room  being 
heated  by  convection  and  partially  by  direct  radi- 


FIG.  7. — Heating  by  Indirect  Radiation. 

ation.  In  the  indirect  method  (Fig.  7)  the  coils 
are  placed  in  the  cellar  and  enclosed  in  an  air-tight 
box,  which  communicates  with  the  outside  air  by  a 


Habitations  1 9 

flue;  flues  then  lead  from  the  coils  to  the  rooms 
above  just  as  in  a  hot-air  system.  In  either  of  these 
methods  we  may  use  either  hot- water,  steam-coils 
or  electrical  heaters,  but  the  latter  are  yet  too  expen- 
sive for  general  use. 

In  large  buildings  one  or  the  other  or  both  of  these 
methods  of  heating  are  used  in  conjunction  with  an 
electric  fan  to  force  heated  air  through  the  building. 
In  all  of  these  systems  of  heating-  the  foul  air  is  re- 
moved by  specially  constructed  air-shafts,  by  open 
fireplaces,  or  by  windows  or  doors.  Smead  has 
devised  a  system  which  generally  gives  excellent 
results;  in  this  method  the  heated  air  is  admitted  at 
the  floor  level,  and  after  circulating  around  the  room 
escapes  by  vents,  likewise  at  the  floor  level;  it  then 
passes  under  the  floor  and  finally  escapes  by  the 
chimney. 

There  is  yet  some  question  as  to  where  the  foul- 
air  shafts  of  a  room  should  be  located.  If  heated 
air  is  introduced  at  the  floor  level — and  this  is  the 
proper  place — it  is  certain  that  a  more  equable  dis- 
tribution of  heat  is  obtained  and  more  economically 
by  having  the  foul-air  vents  also  at  the  floor  level, 
as  has  been  demonstrated  over  and  over  again  by 
the  great  efficiency  of  the  open  fireplace  as  a  means 
of  ventilation;  this  for  ordinary  rooms  and  houses. 
When  it  comes  to  the  heating  and  ventilation  of 
large  buildings,  using  either  the  forced  or  exhaust 
systems,  this  rule  is  not  so  applicable,  and  the  direct, 
opposite,  hot  air  from  above  and  extraction  shafts 


2O          Outlines  of  Practical  Sanitation 

below,  may  give  better  results;  in  order  to  get  the 
best  results  an  expert  should  be  employed  to  study 
the  individual  case. 

Examination  of  Air. — In  examining  the  air  of  a 
place  we  want  to  find  out  the  proportion  of  carbonic- 
acid  gas;  if  this  is  normal  we  may  put  it  down  that 
the  air  is  fit  for  breathing  purposes.  Sometimes  it 
is  desirable  to  have  a  bacteriological  examination,  and 
this  is  made  by  drawing  the  air  through  sterile  glass 
tubes  coated  with  gelatin,  or  sterilized  gelatin  may 
be  exposed  in  Petri  dishes  for  a  short  time,  then 
covered  and  set  aside  for  colonies  to  develop. 

Test  for  Carbonic-acid  Gas.  —  The  simplest  test 
for  this  gas  is  Boom's  modification  of  Wolpert's 
method,  the  description  here  given  is  taken  from 
Egbert's  Hygiene.  "  Make  a  mark  on  any  test-tube, 
say  one  inch  from  the  bottom.  Fix  the  bulb  of  an 
atomizer  to  a  small  glass  capillary  tube,  sufficiently 
long  to  reach  to  the  bottom  of  the  test-tube,  and  in 
such  a  manner  that  a  definite  quantity  of  air  is  forced 
from  the  bulb  through  the  tube  at  each  compression. 
To  use:  Fill  the  test-tube  exactly  to  the  mark  with 
a  saturated  solution  of  lime-water,  take  the  apparatus 
into  the  outside  air  and  find  out  how  many  com- 
pressions of  the  bulb  are  needed,  driving  the  air 
slowly  through  the  lime-water  each  time  to  make 
the  lime-water  just  turbid  enough  to  obscure  a  pencil 
mark  on  white  paper  placed  beneath  the  test-tube 
and  viewed  from  above. 

"  Then  rinse  out  the  test-tube,  fill  exactly  to  the 


Habitations  2 1 

mark  again  with  lime-water,  and  repeat  the  process 
in  the  room  the  air  of  which  is  to  be  examined.  We 
then  assume  that  the  outdoor  air  contains  the  nor- 
mal amount  of  CO2,  0.04  per  cent  (unless  we  happen 
to  know  the  actual  amount  in  the  atmosphere  at 
the  time),  and  estimate  the  percentage  of  CO2  in 
the  air  of  the  room  by  the  following  proportion: 

"The  number  of  compressions  of  the  bulb  required 
in  the  outer  air  :  the  number  of  compressions  required 
in  the  room: :  % :  0.04;  #  =  the  percentage  of  CO2 
in  the  air  of  the  room.  If  the  actual  percentage  of 
CO2  in  the  outer  air  is  known,  substitute  this  for  the 
0.04  per  cent  in  the  formula.  Care  must  be  taken 
in  using  this  device  not  to  draw  any  of  the  lime- 
water  up  into  the  bulb." 


ARTIFICIAL  ILLUMINATION 

There  are  three  principal  methods  of  lighting  used 
at  present,  namely,  by  oil-lamps,  gas,  and  electricity. 

Oil  (kerosene)  lamps,  when  properly  made  and  good 
oil  used,  give  a  serviceable  light,  but  they  have  the 
great  defect  of  using  up  a  large  quantity  of  oxygen, 
and,  of  course,  giving  off  CO2.  An  ordinary  oil-lamp 
of  i6-candle-power  vitiates  the  air  of  a  room  equal 
to  that  of  six  or  seven  adults;  consequently  the  cus- 
tom of  burning  a  lamp  in  a  bedroom  at  night  is  bad, 
very  bad,  and  sure  to  be  followed  by  the  deleterious 
effects  of  deficient  ventilation. 


22          Outlines  of  Practical  Sanitation 

Gas  Lighting.  —  Gas  furnishes  much  light  and 
uses  about  one-half  as  much  air  as  an  equal  power 
oil-lamp.  When  gas  is  used  with  the  Welsbach 
burner,  which  contains  an  incandescent  mantle  of 
non-combustible  salts,  it  uses  up  the  atmosphere 
only  about  one-seventh  as  much  as  an  oil-lamp 
and  gives  a  pure  white  light. 

There  are  certain  dangers  connected  with  illumin- 
ating-gas, the  principal  one  being  due  to  the  carbon- 
monoxide  gas  contained  in  it;  in  coal-gas  this  is 
present  to  the  extent  of  about  eight  per  cent  and 
in  water-gas  to  the  extent  of  thirty  per  cent.  The 
inhalation  of  carbon-monoxide  (CO)  gas  is  a  very 
serious  matter;  its  toxic  effects  being  due  to  its 
combination  with  the  haemoglobin  of  the  blood, 
thereby  causing  a  very  persistent  and  fatal  asphyxia. 
In  small  amounts  it  causes  the  languor,  nausea,  head- 
ache, and  debility  frequently  seen  in  those  subjected 
to  escaping  gas  from  stoves,  furnaces,  and  leaking 
gas-burners. 

Purified  acetylene  gas  is  being  much  used  and 
gives  a  very  satisfactory  light;  it  is  not  as  dangerous 
as  either  coal-  or  water-gas,  takes  less  oxygen,  and 
evolves  less  CO2;  the  odor  is  so  peculiar  that  a  small 
leak  is  readily  detected — and  this  is  a  decided  ad- 
vantage. 

Electric  Lighting. — Electricity  furnishes  the  ideal 
light,  especially  the  incandescent-lamp  which,  evolving 
no  heat,  using  no  oxygen,  and  eliminating  no  CO2, 
has  no  effect  whatsoever  on  the  atmosphere  of  a 


Habitations  23 

room.  The  globes  should  always  be  of  ground  glass, 
which,  although  absorbing  considerable  light,  is  much 
easier  on  the  eyes. 

The  Cooper-Hewit  lamp — a  vacuum-lamp  on  the 
principle  of  the  Crookes  tube — is  beginning  to  be 
somewhat  used;  it  is  cheap,  but  it  has  the  dis- 
advantage of  giving  everything  under  its  influence 
a  peculiar  ghastly  hue;  it  is  easy  on  the  eyes  and 
does  not  impoverish  the  atmosphere. 

THE  BACK  YARD 

The  back  yard  is  the  one  remaining  point  about  the 
house  which  calls  for  some  attention,  for  quite  often 
its  condition  is  anything  but  sanitary;  often  it  is 
a  litter  of  rubbish,  ashes,  tin  cans,  etc.,  with  perhaps 
a  bucket  or  a  barrel  partially  filled  with  water,  which 
in  a  suitable  season  breeds  a  million  or  two  of  mos- 
quitoes. That  the  back  yard  should  be  clean  goes 
without  saying,  and  sanitation  is  only  cleanliness. 
There  can  be  no  excuse  for  making  a  rubbish-dump 
of  a  city  back  yard,  at  least,  for  most  cities  speedily 
remove  all  such  material. 

The  best  condition  in  which  to  keep  a  back  yard, 
especially  a  city  back  yard,  is  to  have  a  closely  cropped 
lawn;  it  looks  clean,  is  clean,  and  grass  will  grow 
almost  anywhere.  In  streets  with  high  buildings, 
where  the  back  yards  are  small  and  shady,  a  bed  of 
ferns  adds  pleasure  and  purity  to  such  a  yard,  for 
ferns  will  grow  where  sunlight  is  scarce  and  the  grow- 


24          Outlines  of  Practical  Sanitation 

ing  plants  will  keep  the  soil  sweet  and  fresh  where 
it  might  otherwise  be  wet  and  sodden  with  filth. 


HOSPITALS 

The  construction  of  hospital  buildings  does  not 
differ  materially  from  any  other,  except,  in  that 
as  we  are  dealing  with  the  sick,  all  sanitary  rules 
must  be  carefully  observed,  perhaps  more  carefully 
than  when  constructing  buildings  intended  to  be 
inhabited  only  by  the  well;  one  point  needs  special 
attention  and  that  is  the  provision  for  sufficient  air- 
space for  the  number  of  intended  patients;  it  is  gen- 
erally conceded  that  we  should  allow  2000  cubic 
feet  per  patient  and  150  square  feet  of  floor-space; 
in  contagious-disease  wards  even  more  is  desirable. 

The  plan  of  hospital  building  at  present  advocated 
is  that  of  detached  buildings  rather  than  one  large 
building  (Fig.  8).  Probably  one-  or  two-storied 
pavilions  would  be  better,,  but  this  is  hardly  admissible 
where  land  is  so  valuable  as  it  is  in  some  of  the  great 
cities;  modern  sanitary  building,  too,  has  so  im- 
proved that  a  four-  or  five-storied  building  may  be 
made  to  meet  all  requirements.  In  the  plan  shown, 
which  is  that  of  a  modern  city  hospital,  some  of 
the  pavilions  have  five  stories,  with  the  operating- 
rooms  on  the  top  floor,  which  is  perhaps  a  dis- 
tinct advantage.  Ventilating  and  heating  is  best 
accomplished  by  admitting  outside  air  over  steam- 
coils — indirect  radiation.  The  modern  hospital  with 


Habitations 


2.6         Outlines  of  Practical  Sanitation 

its  hard-wood  floors,  smooth  walls,  large  windows 
devoid  of  hangings,  present  a  very  different  picture 
from  the  old-time  ward.  In  hospital  furnishings 
the  greatest  progress  has  been  made;  enamelled  iron, 
porcelain,  and  glass  are  used  for  almost  everything. 
For  emergency  hospitals  portable  houses  are  now 
available  which  are  easily  and  quickly  put  up;  in 
warm  weather  tents,  of  course,  are  all  that  are  needed. 


PRISONS  AND  ASYLUMS 

Before  the  days  of  John  Howard  any  building  was 
considered  good  enough  for  a  prison.  Since  then 
humanity  has  directed  some  effort  to  ameliorate  the 
condition  of  the  criminal  and  the  insane,  and  we  now 
feel  that  although  the  State  has  a  right  to  inflict  even 
the  death  penalty  in  the  manner  prescribed  by  law 
upon  the  properly  convicted  prisoner,  it  has  no  right 
to  kill  him  with  typhoid  fever,  or  tuberculosis,  or  some 
other  disease  of  defective  sanitation.  A  prison  should 
be  built  with  just  as  much  care  to  sanitary  details  as 
any  other  building;  not  only  should  there  be  proper 
water-supply  and  means  of  waste  disposal,  but  a 
proper  amount  of  exercise  and  proper  food  should 
also  be  considered  in  the  effort  to  support  the  health 
of  the  prisoner. 

Modern  asylum  treatment  is  a  vast  improvement 
over  even  fifty  years  ago,  but  the  unfortunate  insane 
are  still  quite  often  herded  into  buildings  more  like 
cattle  than  human  beings;  overcrowding  is  the 


Habitations  27 

great  bane  of  the  asylum,  and  I  doubt  if  there  are 
many  public  asylums  which  are  not  in  a  chronic 
condition  of  overcrowding.  Another  point  is  the 
food,  which  should  be  given  careful  attention.  I 
have  myself  seen  patients  suffering  with  scurvy  in 
one  of  our  great  city  asylums.  This  institution  had 
a  splendid  set  of  diet  tables  gotten  up  by  a  man 
with  an  international  reputation,  but  the  poor  con- 
dition of  the  food,  the  poor  and  filthy  cooking,  and 
the  poor  service  made  it  so  repulsive  that  it  did 
not  meet  the  ends  intended. 


THEATRES 

The  two  great  sanitary  requirements  of  the  thea- 
tre is  that  the  building  be  made  as  fire-proof  as. 
possible,  and  that  it  has  an  efficient  system  of 
ventilation.  Improved  building  methods  and  the  in- 
troduction of  the  electric  light  have  greatly  lessened 
the  fire  danger  and  have  also  made  possible  better 
means  of  ventilation.  There  should  be,  according  to 
Gerhardt,  who  has  made  special  study  of  theatre 
sanitation,  about  1800  cubic  feet  of  fresh  air  per 
hour  for  each  individual.  In  a  moderate-sized  theatre 
with  a  full  house  this  means  an  enormous  quantity 
of  fresh  air,  which  can  only  be  obtained  by  forced 
ventilation  by  means  of  fans.  There  are  two  methods 
of  introducing  fresh  air:  either  from  the  top  with 
foul-air  shafts  at  the  bottom,  or  fresh  air  at  the  bottom 
and  foul  air  at  the  top;  either  of  the  systems  are  good, 


28          Outlines  of  Practical  Sanitation 

the  selection  depending  on  the  details  of  the  building, 
subdivisions,  etc. 

The   water-supply   should   be   ample,   consisting   of 
two  systems,  one  for  plumbing  fixtures  and  a  separate 


FIG.  9. — A  Sanitary  Urinal.      (From  a  copyrighted  photograph  by  the 
J.  L.  Mott  Co.) 

one  for  fire  protection.  Above  all,  it  is  of  primary 
importance  that  the  city  should  detail  sufficient 
policemen,  thoroughly  conversant  with  the  house 
and  its  exits,  to  preserve  order  and  prevent  panic 
in  case  of  an  alarm  of  fire. 


Habitations  29 

There  is  one  other  point  in  which  a  good  many 
public  buildings,  railway  stations,  and  the  like  are 
especially  defective,  and  that  is  the  public  urinal; 
to  keep  these  appliances  clean  and  non-odorous  is 
one  of  the  most  difficult  problems  in  sanitation. 
Slate  and  marble  are  unsatisfactory  on  account  of 
their  absorbent  properties;  what  is  needed  is  an 
absolutely  non-absorbent  material,  made  in  one  piece 
without  joints,  and  this  seems  to  be  met  by  glazed 
porcelain  such  as  is  shown  in  Fig.  9.  With  proper 
flushing  a  urinal  like  this  has  given  marked  success, 
and  I  believe  will  tend  to  revolutionize  this  hitherto 
defective  point  in  our  sanitary  methods. 


OF  THE 

NIVERSITY 


CHAPTER   II 
Water-supply 

HE  necessity  of  every  person  using  a 
pure  water-supply  is  no  longer  a  matter 
of  theory,  but  a  fact  of  the  gravest  import- 
ance; for  not  only  are  diarrhoeal  and 
digestive  troubles  caused  by  impure  water,  but  the 
two  great  diseases,  cholera  and  typhoid  fever,  are 
generally  transmitted  by  this  means.  We  in  this 
country  are  paying  the  price  of  impure  water-sup- 
plies by  the  sacrifice,  through  typhoid  fever  alone, 
of  40,000  lives  every  year — precious  lives;  young 
men  and  women  stricken  in  their  prime  and  before 
their  time;  sacrificed  in  many  instances  to  an  igno- 
rance and  a  carelessness  born  of  graft  and  greed. 
There  is  no  longer  any  excuse  for  the  existence  of 
typhoid  fever;  every  case  means  some  one's  ignorance 
or  carelessness,  and  the  day  is  fast  coming  when  every 
case  will  become  the  subject  for  rigorous  inquiry. 
Only  the  other  day  a  town  in  Pennsylvania,  scourged 
by  typhoid,  had  the  audacity  to  convene  a  public 
prayer-meeting  for  the  purpose  of  calling  on  the 
Lord  to  stay  the  pestilence,  while  the  town  council 

30 


Water-supply  3 1 

sat   idly   by   with   folded   hands.     Is   it   any   wonder 
we  have  typhoid? 

Considering  the  grave  dangers  of  polluted  water 
the  supply  of  every  community  of  any  size  should 
come  under  municipal  oversight,  and  all  commu- 
nities should  see  to  it  that  they  obtain  a  supply 
which  meets  all  the  sanitary  standards  of  purity; 
it  is  a  duty  that  the  citizens  owe  to  one  another. 

SOURCES  OF  SUPPLY 

The  various  sources  from  which  a  water-supply 
may  be  obtained  depends  on  local  conditions  and  cir- 
cumstances; either  wells,  springs,  lakes,  and  streams 
or  rain-water. 

Wells,  although  a  common  source  of  water  in  the 
country,  to  which  reference  is  made  in  Chapter  XI, 
are  not  very  much  used  for  a  public  supply,  but  in 
some  instances  they  may  furnish  the  most  available 
source.  When  desired  for  a  town  supply  a  series 
of  wells  are  drilled  in  the  place  selected,  the  water 
pumped  to  a  reservoir,  and  then  distributed.  The 
points  in  considering  the  availability  of  wells  as  a 
source  of  supply  are  the  amount  of  water  needed, 
and  the  pollution  or  likelihood  of  pollution  of  the 
surrounding  soil,  for  the  ordinary  well-water  is  simply 
drawn  from  the  adjacent  ground-water,  which  is 
good  or  bad  according  as  the  soil  is  polluted  or  not. 
The  ground-water,  by  the  way,  is  that  underground 
sheet  of  water  which  fills  all  the  interstices  of  the 


32          Outlines  of  Practical  Sanitation 

soil  to  a  certain  depth;  it  has  a  periodic  rise  and 
fall,  and  is  in  lateral  motion  towards  the  nearest 
watercourse;  such  being  the  case  it  is  evident  that 
pollution  may  travel  for  a  considerable  distance. 
This  is  amply  proved  by  the  history  of  well-waters, 
which  are  so  often  contaminated  and  have  caused 
so  many  epidemics  of  typhoid. 

The  character  of  a  water  depends,  therefore,  in  a 
great  measure  on  the  character  of  the  soil  from  which 
it  drains.  In  heavy  clay  soils  there  is  very  slow 
percolation  of  the  water  and  what  does  get  through 
is  quite  often  fairly  pure.  In  gravel  beds  and  loose 
sand  the  filtering  properties  of  the  soil  are  soon 
impaired,  and  in  a  region  of  upturned,  broken,  and 
crumpled  strata,  infection  may  travel  a  great  dis- 
tance, readily  following  the  lines  of  fracture.  In 
Fig.  10  is  shown  the  section  of  a  region  where  a 
small  public  supply  is  obtained  from  drilled  wells; 
although  this  water  is  fairly  pure  at  present,  the 
probability  of  future  trouble,  due  to  increased  build- 
ing on  the  hillside  and  the  inclination  of  the  strata 
from  this  point  to  the  wells,  is  very  great;  in  addi- 
tion a  farmhouse  and  its  accompanying  outbuild- 
ings lay  directly  in  the  trough  of  the  drainage  scarcely 
a  quarter  of  a  mile  away. 

In  places  where  they  are  available,  Artesian  wells 
sometimes  furnish  water  of  exceptional  purity.  In 
order  to  have  a  true  Artesian  well  we  must  have 
a  porous  strata  underlying  an  impervious  one;  this 
only  occurs  in  regions  where  the  strata  are  more  or 


Water-supply 


33 


less  horizontal,  places  which  are,  in  fact,  parts  of 
geological  basins.  Such  places  are  found  on  the 
coast  regions  of  the  United  States,  the  Upper  Missis- 
sippi Valley,  and  a  small  region  in  Dakota;  and  in 
these  localities  Artesian  wells  may  always  be  con- 
sidered as  one  of  the  possibly  available  means  of 
supply. 

Another   source    of   water-supply,    frequently   used 
by    small    towns    especially,    are    springs    and    small 


F- Farm  House        P^Eumpiny  Station.        R  =Reservoic  - 


FIG.  10. — Section    representing    a    Public   Water-supply    drawn    from 
Wells,  and  Danger  from  Contamination. 

streams.  A  good  many  people  have  the  idea  that 
any  spring-water  is  good,  but  the  truth  is  that 
spring-water,  being  simply  an  overflow  of  the  ground- 
water,  is  just  as  good,  and  no  better  than  its  sur- 
roundings. If  the  gathering-grounds  of  the  spring 
are  uncultivated  and  uninhabited  uplands,  it  will 
likely  be  good,  but  to  trust  a  spring  because  it  is  a 
a  spring  is  folly.  On  the  other  hand,  springs  and 
high  upland  brooks  far  from  contamination  some- 


34          Outlines  of  Practical  Sanitation 

times  yield  the  purest  waters  obtainable.  John  Muir, 
the  great  naturalist,  tells  of  the  wonderful  purity 
of  the  springs  in  the  high  Sierras.  One  of  them  he 
mentions  as  "sparkling,  exhilarating,  and  so  posi- 
tively delicious  to  the  taste,  that  a  party  of  friends  I 
led  to  it  twenty-five  years  ago  still  praise  it  and 
refer  to  it  as  'that  wonderful  champagne  water."1 
Of  course  the  deliciousness  of  water  generally  depends 
on  the  thirst  of  the  drinker,  but  no  one  can  doubt 
the  purity  of  these  glacial-fed  springs. 

Small  upland  streams  are  sometimes  used  as  a 
source  of  supply  with  the  same  idea  of  their  intrinsic 
purity;  but  this  is  all  fallacy;  if  they  come  from 
uninhabited  highlands  they  are  unquestionably  safe; 
if  their  drainage  area  is  inhabited,  sooner  or  later 
they  will  show  pollution.  In  Fig.  n  is  shown  the 
photograph  of  one  of  these  mountain  streams,  with 
its  gathering-grounds  enclosed  in  a  narrow  valley; 
streams  like  this  are  frequently  used  as  a  public 
water-supply,  though  the  gathering-grounds  are 
thickly  populated;  to  expect  to  get  good,  pure  water 
from  such  a  stream  is  unreasonable  and  a  company 
that  does  furnish  such  water  should  be  amenable  to 
the  law,  if  typhoid  should  develop  among  the  con- 
sumers of  the  water. 

Another  of  these  upland  brooks  is  shown  in  Fig.  12, 
although  wild  and  uninhabited  on  its  lower  reaches, 
as  indicated  in  the  photograph,  over  the  drainage 
of  its  head  waters,  a  mile  away,  are  five  dwellings, 
in  three  of  which  typhoid  fever  has  been  a  scourge. 


Water-supply  37 

No  spring,  no  small  stream,  can  be  considered  safe 
as  a  source  of  water-supply  until  its  whole  drainage 
area  is  known.  Always  be  sure  to  see  the  other 
end  of  any  such  stream  before  you  judge  it  suitable 
for  drinking. 

Rivers  and  lakes  are  generally  used  as  a  source  of 
supply  for  the  larger  cities,  but  the  country,  east  of 
the  Mississippi  at  least,  has  become  so  thickly  in- 
habited, and  all  the  large  rivers  so  polluted  (Fig. 
13),  that  to  use  such  a  water  raw,  i.e.,  without 
nitration  or  some  other  means  of  purification,  is 
sure  to  invite  disease  sooner  or  later.  We  used  to 
hear  a  good  deal  about  the  self-purification  of  run- 
ning water,  and  it  is  a  fact  that  flowing  streams  dp 
purify  themselves — due  to  the  process  of  dilution 
and  sedimentation,  aeration  and  sunlight — but  Tur- 
neaure  and  Russell  in  their  splendid  work  on  "Public 
Water-supplies"  claim  "that  it  is  unsafe  to  use 
for  a  water-supply  a  stream  once  polluted,  so  long 
as  any  tract  of  pollution  remains;  to  set  a  distance 
limit  is  impossible." 

The  same  points  apply  to  lakes  and  ponds  as  to 
streams;  the  larger,  however,  the  body  of  water  the 
greater  the  dilution  and  the  less  danger,  other  things 
being  equal.  More  or  less  purification  goes  on  in 
standing  water  through  the  action  of  sunlight  and 
vertical  circulation,  and  the  pollution,  of  course, 
diminishes  as  we  leave  the  shore-line,  but  the  point 
at  which  it  is  safe  to  obtain  a  supply  has  to  be  deter- 
mined for  each  and  every  individual  case. 


38          Outlines  of  Practical  Sanitation 


QUALITY  AND  QUANTITY 

Drinking  water  should  be  colorless,  odorless,  soft, 
and,  more  important  than  all  these,  should  be  free 
from  animal  pollution.  In  judging  the  quality  of  a 


FIG.  12. — The  Wilderness  Brook.     (Photograph  by  the  Author.) 

water  one  must  bear  in  mind  that  "things  are  not 
always  w7hat  they  seem."  I  have  known  a  well-water 
that  was  almost,  I  suppose,  as  clear  and  sparkling 
as  the  spring-wrater  of  the  high  Sierras,  yet  it  was 
grossly  polluted  and  filled  with  the  death-dealing 
germs  of  typhoid;  indeed,  we  find  that  quite  often 


Water-supply  39 

polluted  well-water  is  peculiarly  clear  and  sparkling. 

The  hardness  of  water,  that  is,  the  presence  of 
undue  amounts  of  the  carbonates,  chlorides,  sul- 
phates of  lime,  and  magnesia,  is  undesirable  on  account 
of  the  great  waste  of  soap  and  the  deposit  of  the  salts 
in  boiler-tubes  when  the  water  is  used  in  that  capacity. 
In  using  a  hard  water,  it  takes  about  eight  parts  of 
soap  to  neutralize  one  part  of  carbonate  of  lime; 
hence  the  economy  in  using  a  soft  water.  The  hard- 
ness may  be  either  temporary  or  permanent.  When 
the  lime  is  present  as  a  bicarbonate,  the  CO2  is  set 
free  by  boiling,  the  lime  is  deposited  as  a  white  pre- 
cipitate and  the  water  is  softened;  this  is  temporary 
hardness.  If  sulphates  and  chlorides  are  present, 
boiling  does  not  affect  it,  and  the  condition  is  then 
known  as  permanent  hardness.  There  are  various 
chemical  processes  for  softening  waters  on  a  large 
scale.  The  Clark  process  for  temporary  hardness 
consists  in  the  addition  of  a  suitable  amount  of  lime 
Ca(HO)2,  which  forms  an  insoluble  precipitate  of  cal- 
cium carbonate,  which  is  removed  by  subsidence.  To 
remove  the  hardness  caused  by  sulphates  and  chlo- 
rides, sodium  carbonate  (Na2CO3)  is  used,  which  also 
throws  down  insoluble  precipitates. 

The  quantity  of  water  necessary  for  an  individual 
or  a  community  depends  considerably  on  local  con- 
ditions, as  the  size  of  the  city,  character  of  the  indus- 
tries, etc.  The  amount  is  very  variable  as  reference 
to  the  following  table,  which  I  have  taken  from 
Turneaure  and  Russell,  will  show: 


40          Outlines  of  Practical  Sanitation 


Gallons  per  Capita  Daily. 


Minimum.         Maximum,    j     Average. 


Domestic     

iq 

4O 

2  ^ 

Commercial  
Public            

5 

"7 

35 
10 

*j 

20 

5" 

Loss 

jr 

7O 

2  N 

Total      

AJ 

?8 

Ow 

lit 

^J 

*7s 

/  J 

The  loss  of  water  from  a  public  supply  is  a  grow- 
ing factor,  a  grave  condition,  and  one  that  calls  for 
more  attention  than  it  has  been  receiving. 


STORAGE  AND  DISTRIBUTION 

The  storage  and  distribution  of  water  present  some 
features  for  the  sanitary  student.  Surface  and  very 
filthy  waters  improve  very  much  by  storage,  due 
to  sedimentation,  which,  by  the  way,  carries  down 
many  of  the  bacteria.  Filtered  water  and  deep  well- 
waters  deteriorate  much  by  exposure  in  open  reser- 
voirs, due  to  the  growth  of  algae  and  various  water 
bacteria,  which,  while  not  dangerous  to  health,  give 
the  water  a  peculiar  and  disagreeable  odor.  The 
proper  storage  of  such  waters  demands  covered  reser- 
voirs, although  a  method  of  destroying  algae  has  lately 
been  discovered. 

In  the  distribution  of  a  water-supply,  it  is  desirable 
that  the  pipes  have  no  "dead  ends,"  that  is,  an  end 
projecting  beyond  a  connection,  for  this  is  likely  to 


Water-supply  41 

cause  stagnation  of  the  water;  neither  should  the 
pipes  leak,  not  only  on  account  of  the  loss  of  water, 
but  from  the  fact,  that  on  the  occurrence  of  a  "break- 
down," causing  a  diminished  pressure  in  the  pipes, 
there  would  be  an  inflow  of  soil  water,  which  might 
contaminate  the  whole  system  and  spread  disease 
far  and  wide. 

PURIFICATION 

The  purification  of  water,  or  rather  a  water-supply, 
is  an  absorbing  topic  at  present,  for  though  pure 
water  is  better  and  cheaper  than  purified  water, 
most  of  our  large  cities,  indeed  even  most  of  the 
large  towns,  are  unable  to  obtain  a  supply  of  raw 
water  sufficiently  pure.  Again,  municipal  filtration 
has  passed  the  experimental  stage  and  sanitary  en- 
gineers are  able  to  construct  works  which  will  fur- 
nish a  pure,  wholesome,  and  almost  germ-free  water; 
99.5  per  cent  of  bacteria  removed  is  the  record 
of  some  filters.  Better  yet,  the  efficiency  of  filtra- 
tion shows  up  in  the  desired  reduction  of  typhoid 
fever  in  the  districts  using  the  water.  At  Albany, 
N.  Y.,  for  example,  in  the  ten  years'  preceding  filtra- 
tion the  typhoid  death-rate  averaged  8.9  per  10,000; 
in  the  several  years  following  the  introduction  of 
filtered  water  the  typhoid  death-rate  averaged  only 
1.8  to  2.0  per  10,000. 

It  was  my  good  fortune  to  inspect  this  plant  shortly 
after  its  completion  and  I  remarked  to  the  superin- 


42          Outlines  of  Practical  Sanitation 

tendent  that  I  had  understood  that  typhoid  had 
greatly  diminished  in  Albany.  "Yes,"  said  he,  "we 
don't  have  as  many  cases  now  as  we  had  deaths 
before";  and  this,  while  perhaps  slightly  exaggerated, 
is  about  what  one  can  expect  with  good  municipal 


YIG.  13. — How   our  Streams   are   Polluted.       (Photograph    by    Penna. 
State  Board  of  Health.) 

filters.  If  water  was  the  only  factor  in  the  trans- 
mission of  typhoid,  and  if  every  one  used  only  the 
filtered  water,  much  better  results  could  be  expected; 
but  some  other  factors  are  at  work,  such  as  the  intro- 
duction of  extraneous  cases  from  the  country,  the 
transmission  by  means  of  flies,  contaminated  milk, 
and  oysters. 


Water-supply  43 

There  are  three  principal  methods  of  municipal 
nitration  used  at  present:  Continuous  Sand-nitration, 
the  somewhat  modified  form  of  Intermittent  Sand- 
filtration,  and  Rapid  Sand-filtration. 

Continuous  Sand-filtration  consists  in  passing  the 
water  slowly  through  large  beds  of  sand,  the  filtra- 
tion removing  most  of  the  bacteria  and  suspended 
matter.  The  action  of  these  filters  depends  not  only 
on  the  straining  properties  of  the  layers  of  sand,  but 
mostly  on  biological  changes  in  the  sand-bed,  which 
coat  the  surface  of  the  filter  with  a  gelatinous  film 
composed  of  numerous  bacteria,  which  not  only 
acts  as  a  strainer,  but  destroys  bacteria  and  organic 
matter  by  their  growth. 

Filtration  in  slow  filters  should  proceed  at  about  the 
rate  of  3,000,000  gallons  per  acre  per  day.  The 
filter-beds,  planed  to  the  size  needed,  are  made  of 
concrete;  on  the  bottom  are  the  collecting-pipes  to 
carry  off  the  filtered  water;  the  filter-bed  itself  con- 
sists of  four  feet  of  sand,  resting  on  a  bed  of  gravel 
(Fig.  14).  The  raw  water  is  first  admitted  to  a 


Settling  .Basin;,  Filter  Bed.  Regulator.  Receiver  for 

Filtered  water. 

Fio.   14. — Sketch    showing    the    Relation    of   the    Parts   of   a 
Filtration   System. 

settling-basin  where   a  large   amount   of    sediment   is 
removed;    it  is   then  slowly  turned  on  to   the  filter. 


44          Outlines  of  Practical  Sanitation 

After  use  of  several  weeks  or  months,  depending 
on  various  local  conditions,  the  surface  of  the  filter 
becomes  so  clogged  that  the  water  fails  to  pass  through; 
then  it  becomes  necessary  to  remove  the  top  layer 
of  sand  to  the  depth  of  about  half  an  inch  by  scraping; 
the  bed  is  then  refilled  with  filtered  water  from  below, 
and  is  again  ready  for  operation.  The  sand  removed 
by  scraping  is  piled  up,  cleaned,  and  used  again. 

Filter-beds  should  be  covered,  according  to  Allen 
Hazen,  when  the  average  January  temperature  falls 
to  32°  F.,  this  includes  the  country  north  of  a  line 
passing  through  Philadelphia,  Pittsburg,  Cincinnati, 
and  St.  Louis. 

The  cost  of  slow  sand-filtration  beds  is  from  $50,000 
to  $70,000  per  acre  for  covered  beds  and  a  little  more 
than  half  as  much  for  open  beds.  The  total  cost  of 
filtration,  including  maintenance,  interest  on  the 
money  invested,  etc.,  may  be  estimated  at  from  $7.00 
to  $9.00  per  million  gallons  filtered.  (Turneaure  and 
Russell.) 

Intermittent  Filtration  is  a  modification  of  the 
above,  the  action  of  the  filter  being  periodically 
suspended,  and  permitting  the  filter-beds  to  be  ex- 
posed to  the  action  of  the  air.  Nitrification  is  greatly 
increased  by  this  method,  wrhich  has  been  wonder- 
fully satisfactory  at  Lawrence,  Mass.,  where  the  first 
plant  of  this  kind  was  installed.  The  operation  of 
an  intermittent  plant  entails  considerable  care  and 
attention,  but  when  a  water-supply  contains  much 
organic  matter  it  might  give  better  results  than 


Water-supply  45 

continuous    filtration.     A    plant    of    this    kind    costs 
somewhat  less  than  a  continuous-filtration  plant. 

In  the  American  or  Rapid-filtration  method,  the 
water  leaving  the  sediment-basin  is  treated  with 
a  coagulent,  generally  alumina  sulphate,  and  then 
passed  rapidly  through  small  sand-beds.  The  alum 
throws  down  considerable  sediment,  forms  a  gelat- 
inous film  over  and  amid  the  sand-grains  much  like 
that  which  forms  in  the  slow  filter-beds.  The  filters 
in  this  method  are  built  of  concrete  or  steel  with  a 
system  of  pipes  in  the  bottom,  over  which  is  placed 
a  layer  of  gravel  and  sand.  After  being  used  for  a 
day  or  two  the  filters  become  clogged;  the  flow  is 
then  reversed,  and  air  and  water  blown  through  until 
the  filters  are  clean;  they  are  then  again  put  into 
service. 

Rapid  sand-filters  are  able  to  purify  about  one 
hundred  million  gallons  per  acre  per  day  and  cost 
only  about  one-half  as  much  as  slow  filters.  The 
amount  of  alum  used — one-half  to  one  grain  per  gal- 
lon— is  so  small  that  there  need  be  no  fear  of  any 
deleterious  results.  At  Harrisburg,  Pa.,  where  a 
large  rapid  sand-filter  has  just  been  installed,  they 
tell  a  story  on  one  of  the  prominent  citizens,  who, 
shortly  after  the  plant  had  been  put  in  operation, 
made  the  remark  that  the  filtered  water  was  splendid, 
except  that  there  was  a  slight  taste  of  alum;  the 
man  was*  rather  chagrined  when  the  director  assured 
him  that  the  alum  had  not  yet  been  used. 

In   regard  to   the   efficiency  of   the   slow  or  rapid 


46          Outlines  of  Practical  Sanitation 

method,  it  may  be  said  that  both  are  effective. 
The  slow  method  has  been  longer  in  use  and,  conse- 
quently, we  have  more  extended  records,  all  of  which 
point  to  the  great  value  of  the  method  in  removing 
bacteria  and  staying  typhoid  fever.  Rapid  nitration 
is  valuable  for  waters  that  contain  much  sediment, 
and  perhaps  gives  a  clearer  water  than  the  slow 
method.  Both  need  very  efficient  supervision;  with- 
out this  any  filter-plant  will  be  useless,  yes,  even 
worse  than  useless.  It  is  well  to  bear  in  mind  that 
the  cost  of  pure  water  is  everlasting,  unceasing,  and 
unremitting  vigilance. 

The  interruption  of  a  filtration  service  and  the 
flooding  of  the  pipes  with  raw  water  is  a  very  serious 
thing;  if  a  plant  should  for  any  reason  break  down 
or  the  filter-beds  be  put  out  of  service,  the  public 
should  be  immediately  notified  and  directed  to  boil 
all  water  used  for  drinking.  The  neglect  of  such  a 
precaution  cost  the  town  of  Butler,  Pa.,  1348  cases 
of  typhoid  fever  in  four  months  and  in  deaths. 

The  purification  of  water  by  domestic  filtration, 
though  many  so-called  filters  are  on  the  market,  is 
wholly  unreliable,  for  the  efficiency  of  a  filter  can 
only  be  determined  by  a  biological  analysis  from 
day  to  day,  and  this,  of  course,  is  not  practicable 
in  household  filtration.  If  one  must  use  a  suspicious 
water,  the  only  safe  and  reliable  methods  of  domestic 
purification  are  boiling  or  distilling. 

The  purification  of  water  by  copper  sulphate  has 
lately  come  into  prominence  and  has  elicited  con- 


Water-supply  47 

siderable  attention.  Its  legitimate  line  of  action, 
however,  seems  limited  to  the  destruction  of  algae. 
A  committee  of  the  American  Public  Health  Asso- 
ciation last  year  contended  against  any  use  of  copper 
in  filtered  water,  and  this  same  committee  refused 
to  recommend  its  use  for  the  destruction  of  patho- 
genic germs  in  raw  water.  As  an  insecticide  it  has 
no  advantage  over  kerosene.  Its  one  real  value  seems 
to  be  the  destruction  of  algae  in  unfiltered  water. 

THE  EXAMINATION  OF  WATER  AND  WATER-SUPPLIES 

The  principal  ways  of  examining  water  or  a  water- 
supply  are  by  means  of  a  sanitary  survey  and  by 
chemical  and  bacteriological  analysis. 

The  Sanitary  Survey.  —  This  consists  in  obtaining 
a  thorough  knowledge  of  the  source  whence  a 
water  comes,  and  of  the  opportunities  for  pollution 
to  which  it  may  be  exposed.  (Mason.)  The  sanitary 
survey  is  a  very  necessary  part  of  a  water  analysis, 
for  although  the  chemist  may  find  no  pollution,  the 
biologist  no  germ,  there  may  yet  be  a  source  of  danger, 
especially  in  winter  when  everything  is  frozen  up. 
Take  as  an  example  the  little  stream  shown  in  Fig.  12, 
which  looks  as  though  it  might  have  wandered  through 
the  "forest  primeval";  this  stream  has  yielded  pure 
water  to  a  chemical  analysis;  a  biological  examina- 
tion would  likely  also  give  negative  results,  yet  not 
a  mile  away  over  its  drainage  area  there  have  been 
real  and  recent  cases  of  typhoid  fever,  with,  of  course, 
a  very  possible  danger  of  future  pollution. 


48          Outlines  of  Practical  Sanitation 

Chemical  Analysis. — Chemistry  does  not  presume 
to  indicate  the  direct  presence  of  germs,  or  the 
real  cause  of  disease,  but  simply  to  discover  the 
organic  compounds  in  the  water;  if  these  come 
from  fecal  pollution  there  is  then  the  possible  or 
probable  danger  of  the  water  containing  disease 
germs.  To  make  this  analysis  we  examine  the 
water  for  chlorine,  nitrites,  and  nitrates,  albuminoid 
and  free  ammonia. 

Chlorine. — All  natural  waters  contain  chlorine  as 
sodium  chloride,  which  is  either  due  to  salt-bearing 
strata  or  to  proximity  to  the  ocean.  But  chlorine 
is  also  constantly  present  in  urine  and  household 
waste,  so  that  the  presence  of  more  than  the  normal 
amount  of  chlorine  is  indication  of  such  contami- 
nation. The  normal  amount  of  chlorine  has  been 
found  for  many  localities  and  maps  have  been  con- 
structed showing  the  isochlors  for  such  regions;  in 
Fig.  15  is  shown  the  chlorine  map  for  New  England 
and  New  York.  In  any  given  locality  a  water  which 
shows  an  excess  of  the  normal  chlorine  should  merit 
attention,  although  the  chlorine  may  represent  only 
past  pollution. 

In  the  usual  method  of  testing  for  chlorine  we  need 
the  following  solutions: 

(1)  Standard  Solution  of  Silver  Nitrate:    To  i  litre 
of  pure  distilled  water  add  4.79  gm.  pure  silver  nitrate: 
i  c.c.  =  i  mg.  of  chlorine. 

(2)  Potassium   chromate   in   crystals   or   a    xo-per- 
cent  solution. 


Water-supply 


49 


Process. — To    100    c.c.    of    water    to    be    examined 
add  a  few  drops  of  potassium-chromate   solution  or 


a  few  crystals  of  the  chromate,  and  then  run  in  with 
a    graduated    pipette    the    silver    solution,    drop    by 


50          Outlines  of  Practical  Sanitation 

drop,  until  a  permanent  orange-red  tint  is  produced 
and  remains  on  stirring.  The  potassium  chromate 
is  only  used  as  an  indicator;  after  all  the  chlorine 
has  combined  with  the  silver,  chromate  of  silver  is 
formed,  which  gives  the  orange-red  color — more  readily 
and  distinctly  seen  than  the  wrhite  precipitate  of 
silver  chloride.  The  number  of  cubic  centimetres  of 
silver  solution  used  indicates  the  parts  of  chlorine 
per  100,000. 

Nitrites. — Nitrites  represent  one  of  the  earlier 
stages  of  nitrogenous  decomposition  and  therefore 
its  presence  in  a  wrater  means  present  pollution; 
sometimes  it  is  formed  by  reduction  of  nitrates  by 
the  denitrifying  bacteria,  and  in  such  instances  wrould 
have  little  significance;  practically,  however,  the 
presence  of  an  excess  of  chlorine  and  presence  of 
nitrites  wfould  indicate  a  very  suspicious  water  and 
one  that  had  recently  been  contaminated  with  animal 
waste. 

Solutions  required: 

(1)  Solution  of  sulphanilic  acid:  Dissolve  0.5  gm.  of 
sulphanilic   acid   in    150   c.c.   of  dilute   acetic   acid. 

(2)  Solution  of  naphthylamine  acetate:  Boil  o.i  gm. 
of  solid  naphthylamine  in  20  c.c.   of  distilled  water; 
filter  through  a  plug  of  washed  absorbent  cotton  and 
mix  the  filtrate  with  180  c.c.  of  dilute  acetic  acid. 

Process. — To  25  c.c.  of  the  water  to  be  examined 
add  2  c.c.  each  of  sulphanilic  acid  and  naphthylamine- 
acetate  solutions,  using  a  separate  pipette  for  each; 
if  any  color  arises  in  three  or  four  minutes  nitrites 


Water-supply  5 1 

are  present.  A  quantitative  test  is  hardly  necessary, 
as  the  mere  presence  of  nitrites  indicates  nitrogenous 
decomposition  as  mentioned  above;  in  some  instances 
a  water  shows  the  presence  of  nitrites  and  entire 
absence  of  chlorine;  this,  of  course,  would  be  inter- 
preted to  mean  that  the  organic  matter  was  of  vege- 
table origin. 

The  tests  for  chlorine  and  nitrites  are  so  easily 
and  readily  performed  that  they  are  available  for 
the  speedy  examination  of  suspicious  waters,  and 
although  a  positive  test  might  not  be  sufficient  to 
absolutely  condemn  a  water,  without  more  com- 
plete analysis,  the  negative  test,  that  is,  water  free 
from  nitrites  and  containing  only  the  normal  chlorine 
of  the  locality,  could  be  likely  passed  as  safe,  for 
the  time  being  at  least,  until  a  more  extended  exam- 
ination had  been  made.  In  Fig.  16  is  shown  a  small 
stand  which  I  have  constructed  for  conducting  these 
examinations.  On  one  side  are  the  materials  for  a 
chlorine  test  and  on  the  other  the  materials  for  a 
nitrite  test;  the  stand  is  painted  with  white  enamel 
and  thus  very  readily  enables  one  to  note  the  color- 
changes.  With  an  arrangement  like  this  a  series  of 
examinations  can  be  made  with  great  rapidity. 

Albuminoid  and  Free  Ammonia. — 'These  represent 
nitrogen  in  the  earlier  transition  stages  and,  as  they 
always  accompany  fecal  matter,  their  prevalence  is 
of  much  sanitary  importance;  free  ammonia,  how- 
ever, occurs  under  normal  conditions,  in  certain 
peat-waters  and  in  rain-water  at  times.  A  water 


52          Outlines  of  Practical  Sanitation 

which  yields  no  albuminoid  ammonia  L  organically 
pure,  even  if  it  contains  free  ammonia  and  chlorine; 
if  the  albuminoid  ammonia  reaches  0.15  mg.  per 
litre  the  water  should  be  condemned. 

titrates  represent  the  final  stage  into  which  nitro- 
gen is  changed;   as  it  is  very  stable,  it  remains  in  the 


FIG.  1 6. — Apparatus  for  Water  Analysis.     (Photegraph  by  the  Author.) 

soil  for  a  long  time  and  may  represent  only  past  pollu- 
tion. For  methods  of  testing  water  for  albuminoid 
and  free  ammonia,  nitrates,  and  hardness,  the  reader 
is  referred  to  the  larger  works  on  sanitary  science  or 
chemistry;  a  complete  chemical  analysis  is  a  rather 
complex  affair,  and  it  was  hardly  thought  necessary 


Water-supply  53 

to  introduce  it  in  a  work  like  this,  for  it  can  only 
be  undertaken  by  a  competent  chemist.  It  is  well 
to  remember  that  at  the  best  a  chemical  analysis 
can  only  prove  the  presence  of  organic  matter,  which 
may  or  may  not  be  a  source  of  disease-producing 
pollution. 

The  Bacteriological  Examination  of  water  is  mostly 
centred  in  the  examination  for  Bacillus  coli,  because 
this  bacillus  has  been  considered  an  index  of  pollution; 
it  occurs  as  a  short  rod  with  rounded  ends,  in  many 
respects  similar  to  the  typhoid  bacillus,  is  a  nor- 
mal inhabitant  of  the  intestine  of  man  and  most 
animals,  and  lives  for  several  months  in  ordinary 
well-water.  Although  its  presence  in  a  water  may 
only  denote  pollution  from  the  discharges  of  some 
passing  animal,  its  persistent  presence  in  large  num- 
bers indicate  sewage  contamination;  for  some  time 
it  was  thought  the  presence  of  B.  coli  in  water  might 
possibly  be  attributed  to  fish,  but  Mr.  George  John- 
son, who  has  studied  this  subject,  has  conclusively 
shown  that  fish  could  only  transmit  this  bacillus 
when  first  taken  up  from  polluted  water,  i.e.,  that 
B.  coli  was  not  a  natural  inhabitant  of  the  fishes' 
intestine.  It  is  now  generally  conceded  that  the 
detection  of  B.  coli  in  a  large  proportion  of  small 
samples — i  c.c.  or  less — of  a  water-supply  is  an 
imperative  indication  of  comparatively  recent  sewage 
pollution. 


54         Outlines  of  Practical  Sanitation 


ICE-SUPPLIES 

The  sanitary  importance  of  ice-supplies  arises  from 
the  fact  that  it  has  been  proved  experimentally  that 
B.  typhosus  can  live  with  vitality  unimpaired  for  at 
least  three  months  in  a  cake  of  ice,  and  we  know 


FIG.  17. — A  Pond  bordered  by  Houses  often  furnishes  the  Public 
Ice-supply.     (Photograph  by  the  Author.) 

that  ice-supplies  are  often  taken  from  polluted  streams 
and  ponds  much  like  that  shown  in  the  photograph 
(Fig.  17). 

Practically,  however,  freezing  is  a  great  water 
purifier,  for  almost  all  the  bacteria  are  removed  by 
this  means.  On  the  other  hand,  when  polluted 


Water-supply  55 

water  is  allowed  to  flow  over  the  top  of  ice  and  then 
again  frozen,  the  danger  would,  of  course,  be  increased. 
Another  item  to  consider  is  that  almost  all  the  natural 
ice  used  is  over  three  months  old,  and  after  that  time 
the  vitality  of  the  typhoid  bacillus  is  so  much  impaired 
that  it  is  likely  of  little  danger.  There  have  been 
recorded  only  one  or  two  cases  of  typhoid  fever  which 
were  directly  traced  to  ice,  yet  the  possibility  is  so 
likely  that  the  public  should  demand  ice  from  a 
source  of  known  purity,  or,  better,  artificial  ice 
frozen  from  filtered  or  distilled  water.  In  this  con- 
nection it  is  also  worth  remembering  that  the  fearful 
epidemic  of  typhoid  fever  at  Plymouth,  Pa.,  was 
caused  by  typhoid  dejecta  thrown  out  into  the  snow 
bordering  a  mountain  stream,  which  furnished  water 
to  a  town  miles  away. 


CHAPTER   III 
The   Collection   and    Disposal   of  Waste 


«7~|F    there    is    any    one    point    in    which    the 
\i ».> 

highly  organized  civilization  of  the  pres- 

j-3*."^-^! 

i.'^jj]  ent  is  especially  defective  it  is  in  the 
matter  of  waste  collection  and  disposal; 
in  fact,  there  are  nowhere  any  scientific  methods 
used  except  in  the  larger  cities.  To  most  people 
and  to  most  cities  "out  of  sight,  out  of  mind"  is 
the  only  available  method  with  which  they  are  ac- 
quainted; consequently,  contaminated  soil  and  pol- 
luted water  is  of  very  common  occurrence. 


LIQUID  WASTE  OR  SEWAGE — SEWERAGE  SYSTEMS 

The  most  dangerous  waste  is  that  composed  of  the 
discharges  from  the  human  body,  and  modern  sanita- 
tion demands  that  this  be  removed  and  rendered 
harmless  as  speedily  as  possible,  for  it  always  bears 
with  it  the  possibility  of  producing  disease.  In  cities 
and  large  houses  this  removal  is  best  effected  by  water 
carriage  through  a  series  of  pipes  known  as  sewers; 

56 


The  Collection  and  Disposal  of  Waste  57 

and  the  waste  known  as  sewage  is  composed  not  only 
of  excreta  and  urine  but  of  all  liquid  from  the  houses, 
factories,  stables,  etc. 

The  consideration  of  a  sewage  system  belongs  rather 
to  the  domain  of  the  engineer  than  the  sanitarian, 
although  there  are  several  points  which  are  of  sani- 
tary importance;  namely,  that  the  flow  of  sewage 
should  be  unobstructed,  that  the  sewers  be  water- 
tight and  that  they  have  sufficient  ventilation. 
The  system  should  be  periodically  flushed,  preferably 
through  the  inlets  for  street  water  located  at  the 
street  corners. 

There  are  two  general  sewerage  systems:  the  sepa- 
rate and  the  combined.  In  the  separate  system  only 
the  sewage  proper  from  the  dwellings  is  received  into 
the  sewers,  the  rain-  and  surface-waters  being  taken 
off  by  a  different  set  of  pipes;  this  system  requires 
only  small  sewers,  as  the  volume  of  sewage  is  com- 
paratively scant  and  constant;  with  this  system,  too, 
the  ultimate  disposal  is  greatly  facilitated.  On  the 
other  hand,  it  is  more  expensive,  as  it  necessitates  two 
systems  of  conduits.  The  combined  method  requires 
one  system  of  large  conduits;  it  is  cheaper  and  when 
the  sewage  is  discharged  into  the  sea,  as  at  New 
York,  it  is  certainly  an  ideal  method  from  the  point 
of  the  economist  or  the  sanitarian. 


58         Outlines  of  Practical  Sanitation 


THE  ULTIMATE  DISPOSAL  OF  SEWAGE 

The  ultimate  disposal  of  sewage  is  one  of  the  great 
problems  of  sanitation,  for,  as  mentioned  before,  sew- 
age is  a  constant  menace  to  health  until  it  is  properly 
destroyed  or  broken  up  into  its  component  parts.  It 
is  a  problem,  the  solution  of  which  is  in  a  rather  un- 
satisfactory state  at  present,  especially  in  this  country, 
and  as  yet  sanitarians  have  fixed  on  no  one  method 
as  perfect  for  all  places;  it  is  probable  that  different 
solutions  of  the  question  must  be  devised  to  meet 
the  conditions  of  different  localities. 

Dilution. — The  method  of  dilution,  that  is,  disposal 
into  the  sea,  or  a  large  tidal  river,  is,  of  course,  allow- 
able. This  method,  which  is  the  cheapest,  simplest, 
and  most  primitive,  reaches  its  ideal  at  Manhattan 
Island,  both  sides  of  which  are  flushed  twice  daily 
by  '  strong  and  swiftly  flowing  tides.  This  same 
plan  used  in  streams  above  tide  level,  like  the  upper 
Hudson,  the  Delaware,  and  the  Susquehanna  is  to 
be  deplored,  for  if  the  growth  of  population  con- 
tinues at  the  same  rate  that  it  has  been  doing  in 
recent  years,  there  will  surely  come  a  time  when 
these  streams  will  become  only  great  open  sewers, 
inimical  to  the  life  of  fish  and  destructive  to 
all  the  smaller  animal  and  vegetable  life  on  their 
banks. 

Sewage  Farming  or  Broad  Irrigation. — This  is  a 
method  which  consists  in  flowing  the  sewage  over 


The  Collection  and  Disposal  of  Waste   59 

cultivated  land.  The  idea  being  that  growing  plants 
will  break  up  and  utilize  the  sewage.  This  is  really 
done  to  a  limited  extent,  but  plant  life  is  not  well 
adapted  for  assimilating  the  organic  matter  of  the 
sewage  until  it  is  first  decomposed  by  bacteria.  How- 
ever, under  certain  conditions,  and  for  small  com- 
munities, this  method  seems  to  do  very  well. 

The  following  is  a  plain  description  of  a  plant  of 
this  kind  which  was  erected  for  an  institution  consist- 
ing of  1200  population  and  making  about  75,000  gal- 
lons of  sewage  daily:  "A  piece  of  sandy  land,  four 
acres  in  extent,  was  selected  for  the  purpose.  This 
was  graded  perfectly  flat  and  laid  out  in  alternate 
beds  and  trenches;  the  beds  being  ten  feet  and  the 
trenches  eight  feet  wide.  The  whole  plot  was  under- 
drained,  but  this  was  later  found  unnecessary.  The 
sewage  from  all  parts  of  the  institution  is  run  to  an 
underground  tank  80  feet  long,  40  feet  wide,  and  15 
feet  deep.  From  this  tank  it  is  thrown  once  a  day  by 
a  centrifugal  pump  through  a  six-inch  duct  into  a 
small  well  at  the  northeast  angle  of  the  sewage  field. 
This  well,  after  being  filled,  overflows  into  a  long 
trough  made  of  two-inch  planks  spiked  together. 
Opposite  each  trench  there  is  a  short  spout  made  with 
a  similar  two-inch  planking.  Each  spout  is  fitted 
with  a  sliding  gate,  and  just  beyond  each  spout  the 
trough  is  fitted  with  a  similar  gate.  By  means  of  these 
gates  the  sewage  is  turned  into  any  trench  desired. 
The  whole  arrangement  is  exceedingly  simple,  cheap, 
and  efficient. 


60          Outlines  of  Practical  Sanitation 

"The  centrifugal  steam-pump  churns  up  the  sewage, 
so  that  when  it  comes  to  the  field  it  resembles  dish- 
water in  appearance,  and  is  so  diluted  that  there  is 
very  little  odor;  within  one-half  to  six  hours  (accord- 
ing to  season  and  dryness),  after  the  sewage  is  turned 
into  the  trenches,  it  has  been  absorbed  by  the  soil. 
It  is  never  seen  again  by  us;  doubtless  it  reappears 
at  the  surface  somewhere  as  pure  spring- water.  Only 
two  or  four  trenches  are  used  each  day,  so  that  the 
soil  as  used  is  always  ready  to  absorb  the  sewage. 
There  is  no  pollution  of  the  soil;  it  is  as  sweet  to-day 
as  before  it  was  used  at  all  for  the  purpose  in  question. 
Neither,  when  the  ground  is  soaked  with  rain,  nor 
frozen  hard,  is  there  any  trouble.  The  sewage  always 
disappears  in  the  soil,  the  process  only  somewhat 
checked  by  previous  soaking,  and  only  slightly  checked 
by  frost;  for  the  sewage  is  always  many  degrees  above 
the  freezing-point,  and  it  thaws  the  soil  sufficiently 
to  make  way  for  itself.  For  six  years  now  we  have 
cultivated  this  field  to  its  full  capacity,  with  the  re- 
sult that  we  grow  upon  it  year  by  year  crops  of  fruits 
and  vegetables  to  the  value  of  over  $200  per  acre." — 
R.  M.  Bucke. 

From  the  above  it  is  evident  that  when  much  suit- 
able land  is  available  at  a  very  low  price  this  is  a  method 
to  be  thought  of,  but  generally  only  for  small  com- 
munities, since  it  requires  about  one  acre  to  dispose 
the  sewage  of  200  people.  The  sewage  farms  at  Paris, 
although  promising  well  at  first,  are  not  turning  out  to 
be  the  success  expected. 


The  Collection  and  Disposal  of  Waste    6 1 

Chemical  Precipitation.  —  This  plan  is  not  much  in 
vogue  at  present — a  plan,  too,  which  is  not  founded 
on  any  scientific  principle,  for  the  precipitate  is  only 
concentrated  filth,  which  is  hard  to  dispose  of.  Pre- 
cipitation could  hardly  be  recommended  as  a  means 
of  disposal. 

Intermittent  Filtration. — Intermittent  filtration  is 
one  of  the  promising  methods  at  present:  it  depends 
for  its  value  upon  the  fact  that  sewage  contains  two 
great  groups  of  bacteria  which  are  necessary  for  its 
destruction — the  anaerobic,  which,  growing  in  the 
absence  of  air,  break  up  and  liquefy  the  organic  mat- 
ter, and  the  aerobic,  which,  only  growing  in  the  pres- 
ence of  air,  split  up  the  nitrogenous  compounds  into 
harmless  elements.  In  order  to  bring  the  sewage  into 
proper  condition,  so  that  these  different  classes  of 
bacteria  can  do  the  work  allotted  them,  we  pass  the 
sewage,  with  intermissions,  through  beds  of  sand. 
While  the  liquid  sewage  covers  the  sand-bed,  air  is 
cut  off  and  the  anaerobic  bacteria  attack  the  organic 
matter:  as  the  sewage  is  drawn  off  air  enters  the  filter 
from  above,  and  the  aerobes  do  their  portion  of  the 
work. 

In  Fig.  18  is  shown  the  plan  of  a  plant  of  this  kind. 
The  sewage  is  first  run  through  a  screen  to  remove 
extraneous  substances,  and  is  then  discharged  auto- 
matically by  a  siphon  into  the  various  beds.  The 
sewage  is  applied  to  each  bed  only  about  six  hours 
out  of  the  twenty-four,  thus  giving  a  period  of  rest. 
By  means  of  intermittent  filters  of  this  kind  60,000 


62         Outlines  of  Practical  Sanitation 

gallons   of  sewage   per   acre   per   day   may  be  puri- 
fied. 

At  Reading,  Pa.,  a  sewage-disposal  plant  has  been 
erected,  consisting  of  coke  strainers  and  aerated  filtra- 
tion-beds, which  is  a  modification  of  the  above  prin- 
ciples, the  sewage  being  first  passed  through  coke  strain- 
ers where  something  like  forty  per  cent  of  the  nitrog- 
enous matter  is  removed,  and  the  resultant  liquid  is  then 
passed  through  sand-filters  or  aerator-beds.  The  crude 


FIG.  18. — Section  of  Tank,  Siphon,  and  One  Bed  of  an  Intermittent 
Sewage-filtration  Plant. 

sewage,  after  reaching  the  tanks  at  the  end  of  the  main 
sewer,  is  run  over  two  suspended  layers  of  coke  twelve 
inches  thick;  every  week  the  sewage  is  shunted  from 
one  receiving-tank  to  another,  and  the  clogged  coke 
is  taken  out  and  burned.  The  strained  sewage  then 
passes  to  the  filter-beds,  which,  in  this  case,  comprise 
about  half  an  acre.  One-half  of  this  (Fig.  19)  is 
supported  by  an  iron  structure,  and  is  about  eight 
feet  above  the  lower  bed;  the  upper  one  consists  of 
three  layers  of  broken  stone  and  fine  sand  two  feet 
thick. 


The  Collection  and  Disposal  of  Waste  63 

When  the  upper  filter  is  flooded  with  sewage,  air 
is  shut  off  from  the  upper  part  of  the  filter  and  anaero- 
bic action  is  exerted;  during  the  drop  of  the  liquid  to 
the  second  filter  and  while  passing  through  the  second 
one,  which  is  of  much  coarser  material,  there  is  ample 


FIG.  19. — Sewage-filtration  Plant,  Reading. 


aeration  for  the  action  of  the  aerobic  bacteria:  the 
effluent  finally  emerges  purer,  it  is  said,  than  the  stream 
into  which  it  flows.  One-half  of  the  filter  only  is  gen- 
erally in  operation  at  a  time,  the  other  half  being 
rested  and  cleaned. 

This  plant  has  treated  sewage  at  the  rate  of  11,000,- 
ooo  gallons  per  acre  and  cost  about  $160,000.  Although 


64          Outlines  of  Practical  Sanitation 

it  gave  much  promise  at  first,  the  cost  has  been  con- 
siderable, and  it  is  questionable  if  this  method  would 
be  entirely  satisfactory  for  very  large  cities. 

The  Septic  Tank  and  Contact-filters.— By  this  plan 
the  anaerobic  bacteria  are  brought  to  act  separately 
in  a  tank;  after  which  the  liquid  sewage  is  filtered 
through  sand-filters  or  contact-beds  composed  of 
coke,  crushed  stone,  or  the  like,  for  action  with  the 
aerobic  bacteria;  by  this  plan  a  still  much  larger 
amount  of  sewage  may  be  treated,  even  five  or  ten 
times  more,  than  when  disposed  of  by  intermittent 
filtration-beds. 

The  septic  tank,  as  it  is  called,  need  not  of  necessity 
be  covered,  for  it  is  found  that,  if  sewage  is  admitted 
at  the  bottom,  the  anaerobic  action  goes  on  unin- 
terruptedly, sufficiently  protected  by  the  thick 
scum  over  the  surface  from  the  light  and  air,  the 
presence  of  which  would  interfere  with  the  action 
of  the  anaerobic  bacteria.  The  septic  tank  is  simply 
a  "workhouse  for  the  anaerobes,"  as  one  writer  has 
put  it,  and  its  great  value  depends  on  the  fact  that 
it  removes  just  about  one-half  of  the  putrescible 
substances  in  the  sewage,  thereby  reducing  the  area 
of  filter-beds  required  for  further  purification.  The 
sewage  after  "working"  for  from  six  to  twelve  hours 
in  the  tank  is  then  turned  on  the  beds,  which  are 
composed  of  any  material  allowing  more  or  less  rapid 
filtration,  the  same  bed  being  used  only  once  in  the 
twenty-four  hours.  The  contact-bed  is  the  "work- 
shop of  the  aerobes." 


The  Collection  and  Disposal  of  Waste  65 

To  sum  up  the  question  of  sewage  disposal  we 
may  say  that  intermittent  nitration  through  beds 
of  sand  is  probably  the  best  method  yet  devised, 
when  one  can  obtain  sand  cheaply;  in  other  places 
the  septic  tank  with  contact-filters  of  sand,  coke,  or 
cinders — which  is  only  a  modification  of  intermittent 
filtration — may  be  more  available.  Broad  irriga- 
tion, as  mentioned  before,  can  only  be  used  for  small 
communities  and  where  land  is  very  cheap. 


SOLID  WASTE  AND  ITS  COLLECTION^ 

After  a  city  or  community  has  disposed  of  its  sew- 
age there  yet  remains  a  great  deal  of  solid  waste,  such 
as  garbage,  rubbish,  ashes,  etc.,  which  should  rightly  be 
taken  care  of  by  the  municipality;  however,  in  some 
pretty  large  cities  this  is  left  to  the  individual  house- 
holder, but  individual  action,  when  it  comes  to  the  re- 
moval of  waste,  is  very  defective.  Although  all  this 
kind  of  waste  is  not  directly  dangerous  to  health,  it 
does  create  a  nuisance  which  tends  indirectly  to  affect 
the  public  health,  unless  removal  and  disposal  are 
effected  in  a  sanitary  way;  for  this  reason  the  prob- 
lem belongs  to  the  domain  of  the  sanitarian. 

The  first  requisite  in  the  disposal  of  a  city's  waste 
is  effectual  collection  and  separation  of  the  waste 
into  its  component  parts,  as  was  inaugurated  by 
Col.  Waring  in  New  York  City;  -of  course  if  the> 
refuse  is  all  destroyed  by  fire,  as  in  some  of  the  English 
cities,  separation  is  unimportant;  otherwise  this 


66         Outlines  of  Practical  Sanitation 

should  be  carefully  attended  to  and  collected  as 
garbage — that  is,  household  waste  from  the  kitchen — 
ashes,  street-sweepings,  and  rubbish,  the  last  com- 
prising everything  not  included  in  the  other  classes. 
The  collection  of  waste  has  some  objectionable 
features  which  are  readily  remedied;  for  example, 
in  the  collection  of  ashes,  which  is  nearly  always 
associated  with  a  whirlwind  of  dust,  there  should 
be  more  care  exercised;  ashes  should  always  be  kept 
in  covered  cans,  emptied  carefully,  and  removed  in 
covered  wagons.  Garbage  presents  a  decidedly  annoy- 
ing character  unless  it  is  kept  in  water-tight  cans 
and  removed  daily  in  covered  metal  carts.  Street- 
sweepings  should  be  kept  in  cans  or  bags  as  described 
in  the  chapter  on  Municipal  Hygiene,  and  removed 
in  covered  carts  the  same  as  the  ashes.  The  col- 
lection of  rubbish  may  be  made  at  the  intervals 
judged  necessary,  but  should  be  done  likewise  with 
covered  wagons.  The  ultimate  disposal  of  refuse 
material  is  best  considered  by  taking  up  each  sub- 
ject separately. 

DISPOSAL  OF  GARBAGE 

The  subject  of  garbage  disposal  is  in  a  more  unsat- 
isfactory state  than  is  sewage  disposal;  some  of  the 
methods  in  use,  though  economical,  create  a  nuisance; 
some  others  although  sanitary  are  expensive,  and  so 
it  stands.  The  various  methods  worth  considering 
are  as  follows: 


The  Collection  and  Disposal  of  Waste  67 

Feeding  to  Swine.  —  This,  although  not  a  very 
scientific  precedure,  is  the  method  adopted  in  a  good 
many  small  cities,  and  if  care  is  used  there  is  prob- 
ably no  sanitary  objection;  it  is  important  that  it 
be  collected  promptly  and  used  before  putrefaction 
begins. 

Dumping  as  Filling.  —  The  public  "dump"  is  one 
of  the  objectionable  features  of  so  many  American 
cities.  Although  it  may  not  have  very  much  rela- 
tion to  ill-health,  it  is  certainly  a  nuisance  unless 
great  care  is  taken;  then,  again,  dumping  can  hardly 
be  considered  a  final  solution  of  the  problem,  for  there 
will  always  come  a  time  to  every  city  when  there 
will  be  no  land  available  for  a  "dump." 

"Sea-dumping,"  which  is  in  vogue  in  some  of  the 
coast  cities,  is  very  objectionable;  several  years  ago 
when  this  was  practiced  at  New  York  the  shores 
of  Long  Island  and  New  Jersey  were  strewn  with 
garbage  of  every  description,  and  the  practice  called 
forth  much  protest  from  those  inhabiting  these 
shores;  in  fact,  dumping  garbage  into  the  sea  is 
not  at  all  a  method  of  disposal  but  rather  of  trans- 
ference— of  carting  the  waste  from  your  own  door 
to  somebody  else's, — the  waves  doing  the  carting 
cheaply,  "without  money  and  without  price." 

Burying. — Burying  into  the  soil  is  a  thoroughly 
scientific  method  for  the  disposal  of  garbage,  for  the 
organic  matter  is  quickly  broken  up  by  nitrification; 
indeed  it  is  the  method  recommended  for  small 
suburban  and  village  houses  and  is  discussed  in  this 


68         Outlines  of  Practical  Sanitation 

connection  in  Chapter  XI,  but  it  cannot  be  recom- 
mended for  towns  or  cities  of  any  size  on  account 
of  the  enormous  expense  entailed. 

Reduction  and  Utilization. — This  process  consists  in 
trying  to  recover  as  much  as  possible  of  the  contained 
grease  and  to  turn  the  residue  into  fertilizer;  it  con- 
sists, in  a  general  way,  in  cooking  the  garbage  in  suit- 
able tanks  and  then  extracting  the  fat  by  means  of 
benzine  or  naphtha. 

The  Arnold  process,  used  in  New  York  and  Boston, 
is  the  simplest,  most  successful,  and  least  costly.  The 
description  of  this  process  as  described  by  Rudolph 
Hering,  to  whom  I  am  much  indebted,  is  as  follows: 
"The  garbage,  after  picking  out  metals,  glass,  and 
other  undesirable  stuff,  is  dumped  into  digesters,  hold- 
ing each  about  eight  tons.  In  them  the  garbage  is 
cooked  several  hours  under  pressure  with  live  steam. 
It  is  then  allowed  to  fall  through  a  valve  at  the  bottom 
into  a  continually  rolling  press  which  separates  the 
fluid  from  the  tankage.  The  fluid  consists  of  grease 
and  water,  which  are  subsequently  separated  by 
gravity,  the  water  flowing  off  into  a  sewer,  and  the 
grease  into  a  tank,  to  be  barreled  and  sold.  The  re- 
maining solid  matter,  or  tankage,  is  dried,  and  then 
either  ground  and  sold  as  a  filler  for  fertilizer,  burned, 
or  wasted."  Great  care  must  be  used  in  all  reduction 
plants  or  they  are  likely  to  become  a  nuisance.  About 
twenty  of  our  largest  cities  are  using  more  or  less  suc- 
I  cessfully  some  form  of  the  reduction  process,  which 
can  only  be  considered  available  when  a  large  amount 


The  Collection  and  Disposal  of  Waste   69 

of  garbage  is  to  be  treated;  in  Europe,  where  the  peo- 
ple are  not  so  wasteful,  the  garbage  contains  so  little 
grease  that  reduction  would  not  be  thought  of. 

Cremation. — This  is  the  method  used  so  successfully 
in  Europe  and  with  considerable  success  in  some  of 
our  own  cities.  A  good  many  of  the  American  failures 
being  probably  due  to  the  fact  that  we  have  been  try- 
ing to  burn  the  garbage  alone  without  other  refuse, 
thereby  increasing  the  cost;  and  also  by  our  lack  of 
expert  supervision.  There  are  a  number  of  different 
types  of  furnaces,  one  of  which,  the  Thackeray  Incin- 
erator, has  given  fair  satisfaction.  This  furnace  con- 
sists simply  of  a  number  of  small  furnaces  built  along 
a  horizontal  shaft,  which  is  only  a  prolongation  of  the 
chimney;  these  furnaces  are  fed  by  a  hopper  above, 
into  which  the  garbage  is  dumped.  A  diagrammatic 
section  of  one  of  these  furnaces  is  shown  in  Fig.  20. 

The  Engle  Cremator  is  another  available  type  of 
furnace  that  has  been  more  or  less  successful.  It  has 
two  fires:  the  first  attacks  the  garbage  directly;  the 
smoke  and  gases  pass  through  the  second  and  are 
destroyed.  This  furnace  has  been  very  efficient  in 
many  places,  but  the  expense  of  operating  has  been 
considerable. 

While  garbage  cremation  has  been  a  success  in 
Europe,  the  results  in  this  country  have  not  been  what 
we  have  had  the  right  to  expect.  One  reason  for  this, 
it  is  claimed,  as  mentioned  above,  is  that  we  try  to 
burn  only  the  garbage,  and  throw  away  the  ashes, 
which  in  some  cities  contain  20  per  cent  of  coal — an 


jo          Ourlines  of  Practical  Sanitation 


amount  of  combustible  material  which  should  cer- 
tainly be  utilized.  The  design  of  the  furnace  is  another 
factor.  The  English  furnaces  always  have  sloping 
grates,  which  admit  of  more  automatic  combustion 
than  is  possible  with  the  horizontal  grate  char- 
acterizing the  American  models.  Then,  again,  skilled 


A  =  Dumping  Room 
B  =  Furnace 
C  =Ash-Pit 
s^  D=  Smoke-flue 


FIG.  20. — Section  of  Thackery  Garbage-furnace. 

*  supervision  and  the  expert  garbage  fireman,  factors 
of  the  first  importance,  are  generally  unknown  quan- 
tities in  this  country. 

The  respective  cost  of  reduction  and  cremation  is 
interesting.  In  reduction  works  the  cost  to  the  city 
per  ton  has  been  from  eighty  cents  to  one  dollar  and 
seventy-one  cents,  but  in  the  largest  cities  the  amount 
of  fats  and  oils  has  paid  for  the  cost  of  extraction. 


The  Collection  and  Disposal  of  Waste  71 

Cremation  costs  from  less  than  fifty  cents  to  seventy- 
five  cents  per  ton,  the  greatest  success  economically 
being  when  ashes,  garbage,  and  rubbish  are  burned 
together,  as  at  Montreal  and  San  Francisco,  where 
the  cost  has  been  respectively  thirty-seven  cents  and 
seventy- five  cents.  Unless  there  is  combined  com- 
bustion of  all  the  waste,  there  yet  remain  ashes,  street- 
sweepings,  and  rubbish  to  dispose  of. 

DISPOSAL  OF  ASHES  AND  STREET-SWEEPINGS 

The  usual  disposal  of  ashes  is  for  filling  in  low  lands, 
for  road-making,  and  as  a  substitute  for  sand  in  making 
mortar.  Ashes  are  also  used  for  making  foundations 
under  pavements,  than  which  there  is  nothing  better. 

The  proper  method  for  disposing  street-sweepings 
is  by  cremation,  on  account  of  the  fact  that  this  dust 
very  often  contains  many  pathogenic  germs.  Other 
means  of  disposal,  practiced  in  many  places,  but  not 
to  be  recommended,  are  its  use  as  fertilizer  on  adjoin- 
ing fields  and  dumping  in  low  places  for  filling. 

DISPOSAL  OF  RUBBISH 

The  rubbish  of  a  large  city  generally  contains 
much  valuable  waste  which  can  be  utilized  in  vari- 
ous ways,  and  consequently  all  rubbish  should  be 
"picked  over,"  and  the  salable  products  removed 
as  a  source  of  revenue.  In  New  York  the  fol- 
lowing articles  are  collected  and  sold:  paper,  rags, 


72         Outlines  of  Practical  Sanitation 

carpet,  bagging,  twine,  shoes,  hats,  bottles,  tin  cans, 
copper,  brass,  zinc,  iron,  rubber,  hair  cloth,  and  curled 
hair;  the  remainder  of  the  rubbish,  which  contains 
about  80  per  cent  of  combustible  material,  is  best 
destroyed  by  fire.  The  cost  of  cremating  rubbish  alone 
in  New  York  has  been  about  one  dollar  per  ton,  while 
in  San  Francisco,  where  they  cremate  all  the  waste 
together,  the  cost  has  been  less  than  fifty  cents  per  ton. 

QUESTION  AS  TO  BEST  METHOD  OF  DISPOSAL  OF 
SOLID  WASTE 

When  the  question  arises  as  to  what  is  the  best 
method  of  disposal  of  solid  waste  each  community  will 
have  to  be  studied  separately;  the  solution  depend- 
ing on  individual  conditions,  location,  and  circum- 
stances. The  methods  available  for  garbage  disposal 
will  likely  be  restricted  to  reduction  and  cremation; 
suffice  it  to  state  that  there  is  little  hope  of  the 
reduction  methods  offering  much  of  a  solution,  ex- 
cept in  a  few  of  the  largest  cities;  and  even  there, 
as  the  years  go  by  and  we  become  more  crowded, 
consequently  more  economical,  the  fat  in  the  gar- 
bage will  hardly  pay  the  cost  of  extraction,  and  re- 
duction will  become  a  method  unthought  of,  as  is 
the  case  in  Europe.  If  cremation  is  the  method 
selected,  it  will  have  to  be  decided  for  this  individual 
city  whether  it  is  better  to  burn  everything  'or  only 
the  garbage  and  sweepings.  In  certain  places  near 
the  great  centers  of  trade  the  large  revenue  to  be 


The  Collection  and  Disposal  of  Waste  73 

derived  from  the  salable  rubbish  is  a  factor  to  be 
considered.  In  every  community  where  the  ashes 
contain  much  unconsumed  coal  the  question  will 
arise  as  to  the  value  of  utilizing  this  part  for  fuel; 
in  other  places  where  little  coal  is  wasted  it  may  be 
better  to  use  the  ashes  for  other  purposes.  To  sum 
up,  a  plan  of  disposal  which  can  be  conducted  with- 
out creating  a  nuisance,  meeting  all  sanitary  require- 
ments and  performing  its  work  as  cheaply  as  possible, 
is  the  goal  to  be  sought. 


CHAPTER    IV 
Milk-supply 

0  every  one  belongs  the  right  to  obtain 
pure  and  wholesome  milk;  and  although 
the  complaint  of  the  individual  may  be 
met  with  the  rebuff,  "If  you  don't  like 
my  milk,  you  needn't  buy  it,"  united  effort,  how- 
ever, can  do  much  to  bring  about  a  reform,  which  is 
badly  needed.  I  doubt  if  many  of  us  would  continue 
to  use  milk  if  we  could  see  the  whole  procedure  of 
furnishing  it  from  beginning  to  end. 

Not  only  are  the  special  poisons  of  typhoid  fever, 
diphtheria,  and  scarlet  fever  thus  carried,  but  it  is 
pretty  well  settled  that  bovine  tuberculosis  may  be 
transmitted  in  this  way  to  human  beings,  especially 
to  children;  and  its  use  under  improper  sanitary 
conditions  is  also  responsible  for  the  terrible  infant 
mortality  occurring  in  our  great  cities  every  summer. 
Talk  of  war!  War  is  nothing,  when  it  comes  to  increas- 
ing the  death-rate,  compared  to  filthy  milk.  A  gal- 
lon of  milk  properly  doctored  with  filth  and  improperly 
chilled,  carted  around  by  a  filthy  milk-dealer  in  filthy 
bottles,  and  properly  distributed  to  an  East  Side 

74 


Milk-supply  75 

tenement,  can  do  more  real  harm  than  a  Catling 
gun  let  loose  on  a  Broadway  crowd.  Yet  only  a  few 
of  the  larger  cities  exercise  any  control  in  the  matter; 
to  be  sure,  in  many  places  pure-food  laws  are  active 
in  preventing  adulteration,  but  that  is  comparatively 
trifling  in  a  sanitary  way. 

A  municipality  has  just  as  much  right  to  exercise 
absolute  control  over  its  milk-supply  as  over  its 
water-supply,  and  it  is  a  question  that  will  have 
to  be  taken  up  before  long  by  all  up-to-date  cities. 
To  produce  pure  milk  it  is  necessary  to  use  scrupulous 
care  about  the  cows,  the  stable,  the  milker  and  his 
utensils,  and  lastly  the  milk  itself. 

THE  Cows 

In  the  first  place,  to  run  a  dairy  it  is  necessary 
to  have  cows;  this  may  sound  like  redundancy, 
but  the  fact  is  that  a  good  many  dairymen  do 
buy  much  of  their  milk,  and  although  their  own 
supply  may  be  of  the  right  sort,  the  bought  milk 
may  not  be.  A  case  illustrating  this  came  to  my 
notice  lately.  A  certain  Pennsylvania  dairyman 
who  keeps  an  establishment  advertised  as  a  model, 
with  pictures  of  his  workmen  in  white  duck,  etc., 
was  found  to  be  selling  adulterated  milk.  Crim- 
inal proceedings  were  instituted  by  the  State  and 
the  dairyman  promptly  paid  his  fine,  alleging  that 
the  milk  had  been  procured  from  a  neighbor:  if  water 
could  get  into  his  neighbor's '  milk,  it  might  be  pol- 


76          Outlines  of  Practical  Sanitation 

luted  water  or  perhaps  something  worse.  Conse- 
quently if  a  dairyman  pretends  to  sell  sanitary  milk, 
it  is  absolutely  necessary  for  him  to  produce  the 
milk  under  his  own  supervision. 

The  cows  must  be  healthy  and  show  no  evidence 
of  tuberculosis.  Those  which  do  show  decided  evi- 
dence of  pulmonary  tuberculosis  and  those  which 
show  any  evidence  of  tubercular  lesion  of  the  udders 
should  be  excluded.  The  animals  must  be  kept 
thoroughly  clean — groomed  as  carefully  as  a  horse — 
and  the  udders  washed  and  wiped  dry  with  clean  towels 
before  milking. 

THE  STABLE 

The  stable  should  be  made  of  concrete  if  pos- 
sible; at  least  the  floor  should  be  of  this  material; 
the  ceiling  must  be  dust-proof,  especially  if  the 
space  above  is  occupied.  There  should  be  plenty 
of  sunlight  and  ample  air-space  for  each  animal 
— something  like  900  or  1000  cubic  feet  is  probably 
sufficient;  in  a  good  many  so-called  model  stables 
only  600  or  700  cubic  feet  are  allowed,  which  is 
far  too  little,  considering  the  great  predisposition  of 
cattle  to  tuberculosis.  The  best  way  to  ventilate  a 
cow-stable  is  by  what  is  known  as  the  King  system, 
which  consists  in  taking  the  air  from  openings  on 
the  outside  near  the  ground.  It  enters  the  room 
near  the  ceiling  and  passes  out  near  the  floor,  being 
taken  up  and  carried  away  through  ducts  which  con- 


Milk-supply 


77 


nect  with  ventilators  in  the  cupolas.  The  windows 
are  securely  fastened,  being  used  to  let  light  in  and 
keep  dust  out. 

The  stable  should  be  kept  thoroughly  clean  by  re- 
moval of  the  manure  at  least  twice  daily,  and  the  use 
of  some  absorbent  to  prevent  odor;  the  floor,  walls, 
and  ceiling  should  be  frequently  washed  down  with  a 
hose,  and  once  a  month  the  stalls  should  be  cleaned 


FIG.  21. — The  Old-sty  h  Cow-stable.     Damp,  dark,  and  full    cf  dirt. 
(From  photograph  by  L.  H.  Baily  in  "  Country  Life.") 

with  some  antiseptic  solution.  Sunlight,  fresh  air, 
and  cleanliness  are  the  sanitary  factors  needed  for 
the  cow-stable. 

On  a  good  many  of  the  older  farms,  where  bank- 
barns  are  the  fashion,  the  basement  is  used  for  the 
cow-stable.  These  barn  basements,  even  in  summer, 
with  all  the  windows  and  doors  open,  are  damp,  dark, 
and  sunless;  when  cold  weather  comes,  the  windows 


78  Outlines  of  Practical  Sanitation 

are  closed  with  straw,  or  even  boards,  and  sunlight 
and  oxygen  become  rare  articles  during  the  long  and 
dreary  winter  (Fig.  21). 

Only  a  short  time  ago  I  visited  one  of  these  base- 
ment stables  where  five  cows  were  kept;  the  ventila- 
tion in  this  instance  was  not  so  bad,  but  there  was  no 


FIG.  22. — A  Modern  Cow-stable.       (From  Report,  U.  S.  DcpL.  of  Agri- 
culture.) 

attempt  at  cleanliness.  There  was  plenty  of  fresh 
straw  lying  around,  but  I  was  suspicious  of  what  it 
covered.  On  questioning  the  proprietor,  who  is  a  fair 
example  of  the  successful  farmer,  I  learned  that  the 
stable  was  "cleaned  "  twice  a  \veek,  but  that  frosh 
straw  was  thrown  over  the  filth  every  evening;  so  it 


Milk-supply  79 

was  nice  and  dry  on  top,  but  wet  and  polluted  under- 
neath. Yet  this  is  the  kind  of  a  stable — this  Augean- 
like  stable — from  which  most  of  us,  whether  we  live 
in  town  or  country,  get  our  milk-supply. 

In  Fig.  22  is  shown  the  picture  of  a  model  cow-stable, 
which  gives  some  idea  of  the  lines  upon  which  such  a 
stable  should  be  built.  Although  iron  stalls  and  con- 
crete floors  are  all  very  fine,  ordinary  pine  stalls, 
which  may  be  whitewashed  every  month  or  two,  may 
be  made  to  answer  very  well,  even  with  only  the  hard 
clay  floor  of  the  ordinary  barn;  the  cardinal  point  is 
cleanliness. 

THE  MILKER  AND  MILKING  UTENSILS 
The  milkers  should  pay  much  attention  to  personal 
cleanliness.  In  some  dairies  the  milkers  are  clad  in 
duck  suits  which  are  worn  only  once  before  being 
laundried;  this,  of  course,  approaches  the  ideal,  but 
much  can  be  done  by  simple  cleanliness,  even  in  the 
absence  of  white  duck;  the  milker's  hands  should, 
above  everything  else,  be  clean,  almost  surgically  clean. 
The  homes  and  families  of  the  milkers  or  other  workmen 
about  the  dairy  should  be  inspected  from  time  to  time, 
excluding  every  one,  of  course,  in  whose  family  in- 
fectious disease  exists. 

The  utensils  should  be  thoroughly  cleansed  with 
hot  water  and  soda,  and  then  sterilized  by  boiling 
water  or  steam.  The  custom  of  rinsing  the  cans  at 
the  farm  pump  has  cost  us  more  than  one  epidemic  of 
typhoid  fever  (Fig.  23). 


80  Outlines  of  Practical  Sanitation 


THE  MILK 

Having  performed  all  the  details  mentioned  above 
we  may  still  furnish  an  impure  milk  due  to  careless- 
ness in  the  treatment  of  the  milk  itself;  this  should 
be  strained  through  new  cheese-cloth,  which  can  be 
discarded  after  once  using.  The  next  step — and  a  very 
important  step  it  is — is  chilling,  the  whole  future  of 
the  milk  depending  on  this  process.  The  usual  method 
on  the  ordinary  dairy-farm  is  to  place  the  milk  in  the 
spring  which  adorns  almost  every  farm;  but  unfortu- 
nately most  springs  do  not  have  a  temperature  below 
55  deg.  F.,  while  to  chill  milk  properly  requires  a  tem- 
perature at  least  as  low  as  45  deg.  F.,  which  cannot  be 
obtained  usually  without  ice.  The  aeration  of  milk, 
of  which  we  hear  so  much — quite  often  painted  on  the 
milk-wagon — is  held  to  be  unnecessary.  In  addition  to 
cleanliness,  chilling  is  the  one  principal  thing  in  the 
treatment  of  the  milk  itself. 

The  bacteriological  content  of  properly  chilled  milk 
is  vastly  different  from  that  of  ordinary  milk;  the  rapid 
bacteriological  growth  of  insufficiently  chilled  milk  on 
a  hot  summer's  day  causes  wfhat  is  commonly  known 
as  "  turning." 

TRANSPORTATION  AND  DISTRIBUTION 

During  transportation  milk  should  be  kept  between 
40°  and  45°  F.,  preferably  in  bottles  which  are  sealed 
at  the  dairy.  When  milk  is  carted  around  from  house 


Milk-supply  8 1 

to  house  another  factor  enters  in,  namely,  the  cleanli- 
ness of  the  milkman  and  his  wagon;  for  example,  I  have 
seen  a  milkman,  when  he  served  a  measured  quantity 


FIG.  23. — Why  Milk  sometimes  transmits  Typhoid  Fever. 
(From  "  Country  Life  in  America.") 

of  milk,  invariably  keep  his  thumb  over  the  edge  of 
the  measure,  so  that  every  quart  of  milk  he  sold  in- 
cluded a  number  of  bacteria  from  his  thumb,  which 
was  never  very  clean. 


82          Outlines  of  Practical  Sanitation 

BACTERIOLOGICAL  EXAMINATION 

In  the  managment  of  a  scientific  dairy  there  should 
be  provision  made  for  a  bacteriological  examination  of 
the  milk  from  time  to  time,  for  by  this  means  we  have 
a  ready  check  on  the  efficiency  of  the  methods  carried 
out.  Milk  prepared  according  to  the  directions  given 
above — from  good  cows,  in  a  clean  stable,  by  clean 
milkmen  and  utensils,  and  properly  chilled — yields  com- 
paratively few  bacterial  colonies  to  the  cubic  centimeter 
examined;  in  some  cases  milk  has  been  so  carefully 
prepared  that  it  was  absolutely  free  of  bacterial 
growth.  This,  of  course,  was  in  rare  instances;  more 
often  it  yields  several  thousand;  and  30,000  per 
cubic  centimeter  has  been  adopted  as  a  sort  of  standard 
for  pure  milk.  In  contrast  to  this  it  has  been  found 
that  when  cows  are  milked  in  ordinary  barns  in  the 
usual  insanitary  condition  the  milk  yields  something 
like  100,000  to  200,000  bacteria  per  cubic  centimeter, 
or  even  two  or  three  times  more.  Thus  it  happens 
that  a  bacteriologist  can  tell  by  examination  whether 
or  not  milk  had  been  prepared  under  sanitary  con- 
ditions. A  bacteriologist  is  a  necessary  adjunct  to 
a  successful  dairy. 

New  York  City  has  made  decided  progress — per- 
haps it  was  more  needed  there  than  any  other  place — 
in  the  pure-milk  question;  its  milk  commission  has 
issued  rules  and  regulations  for  preparing  milk,  and 
furnishes  certificates  to  such  as  comply  with  its 
directions.  Certificates  are  issued  for  two  grades 


Milk-supply  8  3 

of  milk,  known  as  inspected  and  certified;  the  latter 
is  produced  under  all  the  care  suggested  by  the  com- 
mission and  comes  up  to  the  standard  of  purity 
required;  it  sells  for  about  twice  as  much  as  ordinary 
milk. 

Another  factor  enters  into  the  pure-milk  question, 
and  that  is  the  education  of  the  people  to  the  point 
of  knowing  the  value  of  pure  milk  and  their  willing- 
ness to  pay  the  increased  price  necessary  in  the  pro- 
duction. Much  has  been  done  lately  in  this  direc- 
tion, and  the  sentiment  for  pure  milk  is  rapidly  spread- 
ing, so  that  the  time  is  likely  not  far  distant  when 
the  public  will  demand  such  milk  just  as  they  now 
demand  pure  water. 


THE  ADULTERATION  OF  MILK 

The  adulteration  of  milk  by  the  addition  of  water, 
extraction  of  cream,  the  addition  of  preservatives,  as 
boracic  acid  or  formaldehyde,  does  not  affect  the 
public  health  at  all  in  proportion  to  what  is  done 
by  insanitary  milk;  the  whole  question  of  adultera- 
tion is  not  so  much  a  matter  of  public  hygiene  as 
of  public  honesty. 

Most  States  have  laws  requiring  that  milk  should 
contain  3  per  cent  of  fat,  12  or  12.5  per  cent  of  total 
solids,  with  a  specific  gravity  of  10.29.  The  3  per 
cent  of  fat  is  certainly  too  low,  for  milk  has  been 
produced,  by  proper  feeding  of  the  cows,  which  con- 


84          Outlines  of  Practical  Sanitation 

tains  5  per  cent,  and  it  is  claimed  by  some  dairymen 
that  even  6  per  cent  can  be  reached. 

The  addition  of  preservatives  should  be  prohibited 
by  law,  for  they  tend  to  impair  the  nutritive  value 
of  the  milk,  and  also  interfere  with  its  digestive  proper- 
ties; some  of  the  chemicals  which  are  used  as  pre- 
servatives, when  taken  into  the  system  for  a  long 
time,  tend  to  produce  renal  changes  which  are  likely 
to  lead  to  serious  results. 


CHAPTER  V 
Food-supplies 


HIS  chapter  deals  with  the  insanitary  and 
filthy  methods  used  in  marketing  certain 
food-supplies.  We  are  not  certain  but 
that  disease  may  be  transmitted  in  this 
way;  whether  it  is  or  not,  lack  of  cleanliness  in  food 
is  certainly  not  conducive  to  perfect  digestion  and 
perfect  health. 

BREAD 

The  exposure  of  food  to  the  dust  and  dirt 
of  city  streets — a  common  condition — is  certainly 
undesirable.  Take,  for  example,  bread,  which  is 
quite  often  carted  around  in  a  wagon  more  or  less 
exposed  to  the  dust  of  the  street;  street-dust  is  filled 
with  bacteria  innumerable,  as  has  been  demonstrated 
practically  over  and  over  again.  The  purchaser  of 
the  bread  is  handed,  a  loaf  by  the  unwashed  and 
ungloved  hand  of  the  driver  and  dangerous  filth 
can  very  readily  be  transmitted  in  this  way. 

Bread  is  also  frequently  transported  into  the  country 

8s 


86          Outlines  of  Practical  Sanitation 

from  the  great  cities  by  railroad  and  trolley  lines; 
the  loaves  are  generally  placed  in  open  crates,  ex- 
posed on  all  sides.  Not  long  since  I  saw  a  crate 
of  such  bread  awaiting  shipment  on  a  suburban 
trolley;  this  crate  stood  on  the  public  street  of  a 
certain  inland  city,  while  passengers  waiting  for  the 
cars  were  going  to  and  fro,  and  the  street  all  around 
was  spotted  with  expectoration;  indeed  I  saw  one 
man  expectorate  who  barely  missed  the  bread; 
dust  was  blowing  too — foul  city  dust — and  yet  that 
bread  was,  by  and  by,  placed  on  some  one's  table 
and  eaten.  It  would  be  interesting  to  know  just 
how  many  bacteria  were  living  on  a  given  inch  of 
the  crust  of  that  bread.  Bread  should  invariably  be 
wrapped  in  paper  by  some  one  with  clean  hands 
before  it  leaves  the  bakery. 

FRUITS  AND  VEGETABLES 

Fruits  and  vegetables  in  their  season  are  continu- 
ally exposed  to  street-dust  in  front  of  groceries  or  in 
open  markets;  not  only  are  they  open  to  dust  but 
also  to  flies,  which  are  known  to  carry  actual  disease- 
germs  on  their  feet.  Professor  Ehrlich  made  some  ex- 
periments relative  to  this  question  and  found  that  a 
half-pound  of  huckleberries,  as  usually  handled,  yielded 
400,000  bacteria;  the  same  amount  of  peas  800,000; 
strawberries  2,000,000;  raspberries  4,000,000;  grapes 
8,000,000;  cherries  12,000,000.  While  these  numbers 
probably  vary  much  with  local  conditions,  it  shows  that 


Food-supplies  89 

exposed  fruits  are  fairly  loaded  with  bacteria.  As 
these  fruits  are  usually  eaten  uncooked,  it  is  evi- 
dent that  there  is  considerable  danger.  Such  fruits, 
unless  they  have  been  properly  protected,  should  be 
thoroughly  washed.  The  claim  is  sometimes  put 
forward  that  they  get  plenty  of  dust  where  they 
are  grown;  so  they  do,  but  country  dust  is  more  or 
less  sterile  and  is  totally  different  from  the  dust  of  a 
crowded  city  street. 

All  fruits  and  vegetables  which  are  eaten  without 
cooking  should  not  be  exposed  on  the  street  except 
under  glass-covered,  dust-proof  boxes.  Sometimes 
these  fruits  are  covered  with  mosquito-netting,  to 
give  the  passer-by  the  idea  of  protection  from  flies; 
this  is  all  a  delusion,  for  the  little  fruit  flies — the 
very  ones  which  linger  around  and  feed  at  such  a 
place — can  get  through  the  finest  mesh  of  the  ordi- 
nary screen,  so  that  nothing  but  complete  covering 
under  glass  is  sufficient  protection  for  fruit.  The 
California  fruit  which  the  "push-cart"  men  sell  on 
the  street-corners  of  our  large  cities  looks  tempting,  but 
would  any  thoughtful  person  eat  of  it  after  such  daily 
dust  exposure?  Dr.  Bell  of  Brooklyn,  late  editor 
of  "The  Sanitarian,"  has  called  attention  to  the  fact 
that  the  intestinal  diseases  frequently  attributed  to 
fresh  and  presumably  wholesome  fruit  and  vegetables 
may  be  due  to  this  dust  exposure;  and  it  is  generally 
conceded,  I  believe,  that  he  is  right. 


90          Outlines  of  Practical  Sanitation 


OYSTERS,  FISH,  AND  MEAT 

The  marketing  of  oysters  calls  for  radical  changes, 
for  oysters  are  often  eaten  raw.  In  the  first  place 
more  than  one  epidemic  of  typhoid  fever  has  been 
caused  by  the  eating  of  oysters  "fattened  "  in  sewage- 
polluted  waters;  and  Massachusetts  and  Xew  Jersey 
both  have  laws  prohibiting  the  placing  of  oysters  in 
waters  at  all  contaminated  with  sewage. 

In  the  next  place,  and  probably  almost  as  important, 
is  the  filthy  method  used  in  opening  them;  the  out- 
side of  the  shell  should  certainly  be  cleaned  before 
opening,  for  although  the  mud  and .  dirt  clinging  to 
a  shell  may  not  contain  many  germs,  we  do  not  care 
to  have  it  served  on  the  table.  More  important  still 
is  it  that  the  hands  of  the  opener  be  clean:  nobody 
wishes  to  have  the  liquor  from  the  opened  oyster 
drip  over  the  dirty  hands  of  the  opener;  and  this 
is  more  than  mere  fancy,  for  filthy  hands  are  likely 
to  carry  myriads  of  disease-germs.  I  had  once  been 
buying  oysters  of  a  certain  dealer  whom  I  missed 
on  my  next  visit;  on  inquiry  I  found  he  had  typhoid 
fever,  yet  he  had  been  opening  oysters  on  the  very 
day  he  took  to  his  bed.  A  serious  risk  it  was  for  the 
one  who  ate  those  oysters! 

If  the  man  who  opened  oysters  wore  rubber  gloves 
and  had  a  clean  white  apron,  I  believe  the  oysters 
would  taste  better;  they  would  certainly  be  cleaner, 
and  I  believe  a  fortune  awaits  the  man  who  can 


Food-supplies  9 1 

open  oysters  and  still  look  clean  and  be  clean.  Oysters 
should  always  be  opened  only  immediately  before 
use,  for  stale  oysters  are  liable  to  cause  ptomaine 


FIG.  25. — The  "Push-cart"  and  its  Germ-laden  Fruit.     (Photograph  by 
A.  R.  Dugmore  in  "  Country  Life.") 

poisoning  with  quite  serious  results.  In  a  good 
many  cities  the  public  are  beginning  to  insist  on 
having  the  oysters  opened  "while  you  wait" — and 
that  is  the  only  proper  way  to  buy  this  article  of  food. 


92          Outlines  of  Practical  Sanitation 

And  now  a  word  about  fish  and  meat .  Although  the 
marketing  of  these  foods  is  not  performed  in  the  best 
sanitary  manner,  it  probably  carries  with  it  little 
danger  to  health,  on  account  of  the  thorough  cooking 
they  undergo  before  eating.  We  all  admire  fish  in 
the  water,  but  somehow  the  fish  at  the  market  does 
not  seem  the  same  you  saw  in  the  water.  White 
porcelain-lined  trays  with  water  connection,  so  that 
they  may  be  flushed  frequently — with  the  addition 
of  ice  in  hot  weather, — would  add  greatly  in  solving 
the  fish-market  question.  For  meat  we  should  have 
white-enameled  racks,  porcelain  trays,  glass  cases, 
and  bright  tools:  perhaps  not  strictly  necessary, 
they  would  at  least  seem  clean  and  make  the  place 
more  attractive  to  the  consumer.  Attention  must 
be  called  to  the  custom  of  storing  on  ice  undrawn 
poultry,  fish,  and  game;  that  is,  such  as  contain 
entrails  and  other  viscera.  The  retention  of  these 
organs  favors  putrefaction  and  infection  of  the  sur- 
rounding flesh.  Cold-storage  foods  should,  on  the 
whole,  be  used  with  caution,  for  freezing  only  limits 
putrefaction  and  does  not  stop  it,  and  when  such 
food  is  removed  to  a  higher  temperature  decompo- 
sition and  the  production  of  poisonous  ptomaines  go 
on  with  increased  vigor. 

THE  ADULTERATION  OF  FOODS 

The  adulteration  of  foods,  like  that  of  milk,  is 
scarcely  to  be  credited  to  the  side  of  the  sanitarian 
but  rather  to  the  economist,  for  much  of  the  adul- 


Food-supplies  93 

teration  is  harmless;  it  is  simply  a  matter  of  not 
getting  what  you  pay  for.  One  of  the  most  fla- 
grant adulterations  is  that  of  selling  oleomargarine, 
artificially  colored,  for  butter.  Oleomargarine  is 
composed  of  butter  mixed  with  a  certain  amount 
of  animal  fats,  and  is  probably  as  nutritious  as 
butter,  and  probably  almost  as  easily  digested. 
Oleomargarine  should  simply  be  sold  as  such,  and  of 
course  should  not  be  artificially  colored.  Lard  and 
olive-oil  are  frequently  adulterated  with  cottonseed- 
oil,  and  olive-oil  is  quite  often  composed  almost 
entirely  of  peanut-oil.  It  is  said  that  cottonseed 
oil  has  been  shipped  to  Europe  in  bulk  and  then 
returned  to  us  labeled  as  pure  olive-oil.  Coffee,  that 
is  the  low-priced  ground  coffee,  is  often  adulterated 
with  ground  chickory,  peas,  beans,  and  various 
grains,  and  even  sawdust.  Coffee-seeds  have  also 
been  so  successfully  imitated  as  to  be  difficult  of 
detection  by  the  eye.  Tea  is  often  adulterated  by 
the  use  of  exhausted  leaves,  the  introduction  of 
foreign  leaves,  or  the  addition  of  coloring  material. 
Cocoa  and  chocolate  often  suffer  the  extraction  of 
fat  and  the  addition  of  starch.  Jellies  and  preserves 
are  very  often  only  refuse  materials  made  up  with 
glucose,  flavored  with  essential  oils,  colored  and  pre- 
served with  salicylic  acid. 

The  addition  of  copper  salts  for  greening  vegetables, 
especially  the  French  products,  is  probably  not  as 
deleterious  as  generally  supposed,  because  of  the 
small  amount  used;  it  has  been  found  "that  although 


94          Outlines  of  Practical  Sanitation 

the  last  forty  years,  hundreds  of  millions  of  cans  of 
such  vegetables  have  been  eaten,  there  never  has 
been  a  single  well-authenticated  instance  of  poisoning 
that  could  be  definitely  traced  to  the  copper."  Alum 
in  bread  is  a  question  often  considered;  it  is  added 
to  bad  flour  in  order  to  restrain  the  conversion  of 
the  starch  into  sugar,  which  occurs  in  flour  that  is 
old  and  damp.  Although  there  has  been  a  wide- 
spread opinion  that  alum  used  in  this  way  is  harm- 
ful, the  injurious  effects  are  likely  much  overesti- 
mated and  are  probably  limited  to  slight  disorders 
of  digestion.  The  use  of  salicylic  acid — a  common 
occurrence — as  a  preservative  is  to  be  condemned, 
for  in  the  quantity  used  it  is  a  powerful  arrestor 
of  digestion,  and  also  a  decided  gastric  irritant.  Worse 
than  all  or  any  of  the  adulterants  yet  mentioned 
is  that  of  the  addition  of  sodium  sulphite  for  the 
preservation  of  Hamburg  steak,  bologna,  canned 
asparagus,  etc.,  for  this  drug,  above  any  other  used 
in  cither  milk  or  foods,  is  believed  to  cause  serious 
degeneration  of  the  kidneys  when  taken  in  small 
and  repeated  doses. 

That  much  still  remains  to  be  done  by  laws,  properly 
enforced,  in  the  line  of  pure-food  products,  it  is  only 
necessary  to  refer  to  the  report  of  the  Dairy  and 
Food  Commissioner  of  Pennsylvania.  During  the 
year  1904  the  Commissioner,  Dr.  Warren,  collected 
over  S53,ooo  in  fines  from  those  who  were  violating 
the  law  by  selling  adulterated  food  and  milk:  the 
millennium  is  not  yet  very  near  in  the  Keystone  State, 


CHAPTER  VI 
School  Sanitation 

T  is  well  for  every  one  who  is  interested 
in  the  welfare  of  his  country  to  remember 
that  the  health  of  the  school  children  is 
of  paramount  importance,  for  they  are 
the  men  and  women  of  the  next  generation,  and  a 
race  of  strong  men  and  women,  vigorous  and  capable 
to  endure  a  life  of  work,  cannot  come  from  a  race 
of  puny,  sickly,  and  badly  nourished  children. 

THE  BUILDING 

First  in  order  of  importance  in  school  sanitation 
is  the  construction  of  the  building,  which  should 
conform  to  all  the  sanitary  rules  so  necessary  for 
other  buildings — a  good  dry  foundation,  supporting 
a  building  of  the  proper  dimensions,  and  so  placed 
that  there  shall  be  an  abundance  of  fresh  air  and 
sunshine.  We  should  calculate  about  300  cubic  feet 
of  air-space  for  each  pupil  and  25  square  feet  of  floor- 
space,  considering  that  the  air  may  be  changed  about 

95 


96          Outlines  of  Practical  Sanitation 

six  times  an  hour.  This  would  allow  1800  cubic  feet 
of  fresh  air  per  hour,  which  is  little  enough. 

The  floor  should  be  of  hard  wood  with  no  carpets 
or  rugs;  the  walls  and  ceiling  should  be  painted  some 
neutral  tint,  which  is  much  easier  on  the  eyes  than 
white.  No  room  should  be  more  than  forty  feet  long, 
for  beyond  this  the  distance  to  the  blackboard  becomes 
too  great  for  perfect  vision.  In  regard  to  the  number 
of  pupils  to  one  room,  all  educators  and  sanitarians 
are  agreed  that  something  like  thirty  is  sufficient, 
and  any  increase  above  this  is  detrimental  to  the 
efficiency  of  the  school  and  to  the  health  of  the 
children. 

The  cleaning  of  schoolrooms  should  be  done  with 
care;  the  rooms  should  be  thoroughly  swept  daily, 
and  mopped  once  a  week  with  soap  and  soda-water; 
the  walls,  furniture,  desks,  etc.,  should  be  wiped 
with  a  damp  cloth  instead  of  dusting. 

SEATING 

A  point  to  which  much  attention  is  being  directed 
of  late  is  the  seating  of  school  children.  It  is  often 
said  that  faulty  seats  furnish  one  of  the  factors  in 
bringing  about  lateral  curvature  of  the  spine;  while 
this  may  not  be  exactly  true,  there  is  no  doubt  but 
that  faulty  seats  would  certainly  aid  in  producing 
this  disease  in  a  child  already  overburdened  with 
a  weak  and  undeveloped  body. 

We  all  are  familiar  with  the  picture  of  the  old-time 


School  Sanitation  97 

country  schoolroom,  with  the  feet  of  the  smaller 
children  dangling  eight  or  ten  inches  above  the  floor. 
There  is  no  longer  any  excuse  for  this  condition  of 
things,  for  adjustable  seats  are  now  manufactured 
at  a  moderate  cost  and  should  be  used  everywhere. 
The  seat  should  be  regulated  to  the  size  of  the  pupil, 
and  attention  paid  to  the  often  neglected  point  of 
having  the  distance  between  the  back  of  the  seat 
and  the  edge  of  the  desk  too  great.  The  desk  should 
be  so  arranged  that  the  pupil  can  sit  erect  on  the 
seat  and  at  the  same  time  read  a  book  leaning  on 
the  desk:  when  the  desk  is  too  far  away  the  child 
slips  forward  to  the  edge  of  the  seat,  and  sits  in  a 
stooped  and  uncomfortable  position.  Error  in  seating 
has  also  probably  much  to  do  with  the  defects  in  vision 
so  common  in  school  children. 

HEATING  AND  VENTILATION 

The  heating  and  ventilation  of  schoolrooms  are  im- 
portant items  in  the  children's  health;  especially  is 
this  true  of  ventilation.  In  the  city,  steam  and  hot 
water  are  generally  used  for  heating;  and  ventilation 
should  be  effected  by  some  method  other  than  opening 
the  windows  and  doors.  The  indirect  method  of  heating 
with  steam-coils  and  the  extraction  of  foul  air  by  vents 
at  the  floor-level,  using  a  rotary  fan  either  in  the 
foul-air  shaft  or  in  the  fresh-air  inlet,  is  an  effective 
plan  both  for  ventilation  and  for  heating. 

In  the  small  country  school  the  best  method  is 


98 


Outlines  of  Practical  Sanitation 


by  the  ventilating-stove,  which  consists  of  an  ordi- 
nary stove  surrounded  by  a  galvanized  iron  hood, 
with  a  fresh-air  inlet  underneath  the  floor  as  shown 
in  Fig.  26;  while  a  foul-air  shaft  near  the  floor  would 


FIG.  26. — Diagram  showing  Circulation  of  Air  in  a  Room  heated  by  a 
Ventilati  ng-sto  ve . 

aid  in  keeping  the  air  in  better  circulation,  the 
windows  and  doors  are  generally  sufficient  for  this 
purpose  in  the  small  one-  or  two-room  building. 

Of  course  a  thermometer — a  reliable  one — should 
have  a  place  in  every  room,  for  only  by  this  way 


School  Sanitation  99 

can  an  equable  temperature  be  maintained.  To  make 
a  thermometer  out  of  one's  own  body  is  folly;  the 
temperature-sense  of  the  body  is  more  fluctuating 
and  unreliable  than  anything  else. 

Fresh  air  is  absolutely  necessary  for  the  health 
and  good  work  of  the  child.  One  investigator  declares 
that  in  a  certain  school  under  his  observation,  where 
ventilation  was  defective,  the  work  of  the  pupils 
fell  off  by  forty  per  cent.  I  can  myself  recall  a  cer- 
tain classroom  in  a  grand  old  college — hoary  with 
age  and  last-century  buildings — where  almost  every 
student  was  often  half  asleep  in  less  than  an  hour, 
due  to  the  vitiated  air  from  defective  ventilation. 

LIGHTING 

Lighting  of  the  schoolroom  is  a  very  necessary 
factor;  quite  often  it  is  bad,  and  is  one  of  the  items 
responsible  for  many  of  the  ocular  troubles  which 
afflict  children.  The  light  should  always  enter  on 
the  left  side  or  back  of  the  pupil,  if  possible.  The 
windows  should  have  an  amount  of  glass  equal  to 
one-fourth  of  the  floor-space,  and  the  shades,  if  there 
are  any,  should  roll  from  the  centre  both  up  and 
down,  so  that  the  light  may  be  as  little  obstructed 
as  possible,  and  be  readily  diffused  by  first  striking 
the  ceiling. 


i  oo       Outlines  of  Practical  Sanitation 

WATER-SUPPLY 

Plenty  of  fresh  water  should  be  one  of  the  req- 
uisites of  every  school,  but  drinking-cups  are  wholly 
insanitary  and  have  been  the  means  of  transmitting 
and  spreading  disease.  This  antique  method  of  fur- 
nishing drinking-water  should  be  replaced  by  the 
drinking-fountain,  which  should  take  the  place  of 
cups  and  other  drinking- vessels  in  all  public  places. 
"  It  consists,"  to  quote  a  writer  in  "  The  Sanitarian," 
"  of  a  marble,  porcelain,  or  iron  pedestal  (Fig.  27), 
about  three  and  a  half  feet  high,  capped  with  a 
funnel-shaped  basin,  twelve  inches  in  diameter,  con- 
nected with  the  water-supply;  upon  pressure  of 
a  lever  at  the  base  of  the  basin,  a  jet  of  water 
shoots  up  from  the  centre  of  the  basin  and  into 
the  mouth  when  held  over  it  and  from  this — the 
jet  being  small  and  without  spatter — with  very  little 
tact  thirst  may  be  abundantly  satisfied  without  the 
intervention  of  a  drinking-vessel  of  any  kind.  It 
admits  of  no  contact  of  the  lips  with  the  jet-pipe  or 
any  other  portion  of  the  apparatus — the  water  flows 
from  the  supply-pipe  through  the  jet  directly  into 
the  mouth,  and  all  waste  into  the  bowl  immediately 
flows  off  by  an  escape  pipe — none  is  allowed  to  accu- 
mulate." The  drinking-fountain  is  the  most  sani- 
tary drinking  appliance  yet  devised,  since  the  time 
when  our  ancestors  quenched  their  thirst  in  primi- 
tive style  at  the  wayside  spring.  It  should  by  all 
means  be  adopted  in  every  school  and  public  hall. 


/I 


I 


FIG.  27. — Drinking-fountain.      (From  copyrighted  photograph  by  the 
J.  L.  Mott  Co.) 

101 


School  Sanitation  103 

In  country  schools  where  water  under  pressure  is 
unavailable,  the  drinking  fountain  cannot  be  used; 
in  such  cases,  the  only  sanitary  way  is  for  each  child 
to  have  an  individual  drinking-cup.  The  origin  of 
water  available  for  country  schools — the  nearest  well 
or  spring — should  be  a  matter  of  inquiry  to  the  patrons; 
the  water  should  only  come,  of  course,  from  an  un- 
polluted source,  and  should  meet  all  the  require- 
ments mentioned  in  Chapter  II. 

TOILET-ROOM  AND  PRIVY 

The  toilet-  and  cloak-rooms  should  be  light  and  airy, 
and  in  the  city  where  water-closets  are  used  there 
should  be  up-to-date  sanitary  plumbing.  Towels  hung 
up  and  used  for  a  week  or  two  are  not  likely  to  give 
children  a  good  idea  of  cleanliness — towels  should, 
of  course,  be  replaced  every  day.  Such  things  may 
seem  trivial,  but  the  lesson  they  teach  may  be  of  vast 
importance  to  the  after-life  of  the  child. 

In  country  schools  the  privy  should  be  attached 
to  the  school  building  by  a  covered  passageway 
and  there  should  be  privacy.  In  place  of  the  old- 
fashioned  privy  the  dry-earth  system  should  be 
used,  made  somewhat  after  the  model  shown  in  Fig.  28. 
A  pit  is  dug  about  three  feet  deep,  which  has  its  two 
sides,  front,  and  back  lined  with  brick  and  cemented, 
resting  on  a  cemented  base;  or  the  entire  structure, 
floor,  and  sides  may  be  made  of  concrete. 

In  the  back  an  open  space  is  left  for  a  door,  and 


104       Outlines  of  Practical  Sanitation 

an  inclined  pathway  is  made  from  the  bottom  of 
the  closet  to  the  surface,  in  order  to  facilitate  removal 
of  contents;  the  entire  foundation  should  be,  must 
be,  absolutely  water-tight.  The  part  under  the  seat 
is  made  of  galvanized  iron,  and  a  flap  is  attached 


FIG.  28. — Dry  Closet  for  Schools. 

to  the  lower  end  to  prevent  an  upward  draft;  this 
flap  may  be  balanced  so  as  to  work  automatically. 
Every  few  days  some  sifted-coal  ashes  or  dry  earth 
should  be  thrown  into  the  closet  by  the  janitor,  and 
when  necessary  the  contents  removed  and  put  on 


School  Sanitation 

an  adjoining  field  for  manure.     An  arrangement  'like 
this  requires  very  little  care  and  is  perfectly  sanitary. 

WORK  AND  PLAY 

The  hours  of  study  should  be  arranged  according 
to  the  age  of  the  child,  for  children's  power  of 
undivided  attention  is  something  very  limited.  Ac- 
cording to  Edwin  Chadwick — an  authority  on  the 
subject — a  child  from  five  to  seven  years  can  only 
give  attention  to  one  subject  for  about  fifteen  min- 
utes; from  seven  to  ten  about  twenty  minutes;  from 
ten.  to  twelve,  twenty-five  minutes,  and  so  on. 

Overwork  in  school  is  a  common  complaint  and 
leads  very  often  to  nervous  troubles,  neurasthenia, 
headaches,  dyspepsia,  etc.,  which  interferes  greatly 
with  the  progress  of  the  child;  better  go  slowly  and 
have  good  health  than  to  go  fast  and  have  a  broken- 
down  constitution  to  take  up  life's  battle  when  school 
is  over.  The  precocious  child  who  knows  Hadley's 
Greek  grammar  by  heart  at  fifteen,  or  something 
similar,  never  takes  the  lead  in  after-life.  Cramming 
for  examination  is  to  be  depreciated,  and  keeping 
children  in  after  school-hours  as  a  means  of  making 
up  neglected  work  is  a  poor  method;  some  other 
means  of  discipline  should  be  devised. 

While  I  do  not  depreciate  scholarship,  I  must  say 
that  the  successful  man  or  woman  is  rarely  the  one 
who  stood  at  the  head  of  his  class,  for  the  simple 
reason  that  the  mental  energy  necessary  to  gain 


Io6       Outlines  of  Practical  Sanitation 

preeminence  at  school  means  often  a  sacrifice  of 
physical  energy  which  should  be  reserved  for  later 
years.  My  old  teacher,  the  great  gynaecologist  Goodell 
(and  I  believe  Egbert  quotes  the  same),  used  to  say 
in  one  of  his  lectures:  "So  commonly  do  I  find  ill- 
health  associated  with  brilliant  scholarship,  that  one 
of  the  first  questions  I  put  to  a  young  lady  seeking 
my  advice  is,  'Did  you  stand  high  at  school?  ' 

-  Play  is  just  as  necessary  as  work,  and  the  subject 
of  school  playgrounds  is  beginning  to  attract  a  good 
deal  of  attention  in  the  cities  where,  in  most  places, 
the  only  playground  is  the  street.  If  school  lots 
were  always  purchased  of  such  a  size  as  to  protect 
the  school  building  from  loss  of  light,  air,  and  sun- 
shine by  adjoining  buildings  there  would  always  be 
land  available  for  playgrounds.  The  bare  walls 
and  bare  grounds  of  the  ordinary  city  or  town  school 
may  be  also  much  improved  by  judicious  planting 
of  grass,  vines,  and  shrubs,  which  besides  improving 
the  appearance  of  the  place  give  the  children  much 
pleasure  and  education  on  the  line  of  civic  improve- 
ment. Above  all,  school  playgrounds,  even  if  covered 
with  a  lawn,  must  not  be  disfigured  with  the  ' 'Keep- 
off- the-Grass"  sign. 

MEDICAL  INSPECTION 

Medical  inspection  of  schools  is  an  innovation  that 
has  proved  to  be  of  much  value,  and  in  a  good 
many  of  the  larger  cities  daily  inspection  is  now 


School  Sanitation  107 

practiced  somewhat  on  the  following  plan:  The  in- 
spector makes  the  rounds  every  morning,  and  the 
teacher  fills  out  printed  slips  with  the  name  of 
the  pupil  and  the  symptoms  or  conditions  to  which 
it  is  desired  to  call  his  attention.  On  the  arrival 
of  the  inspector  such  children  are  sent  to  him,  and 
his  advice  regarding  the  child  is  written  on  the  slip 
and  returned  to  the  teacher,  who,  of  course,  acts 
upon  the  suggestion  of  the  inspector. 

By  this  means  not  only  are  contagious  diseases 
more  quickly  discovered  and  their  spread  controlled, 
but  minor  ailments  and  defects,  which  ordinarily 
pass  unnoticed  until  rrmch  damage  is  done,  are  cor- 
rected and  the  child  better  fitted  to  continue  school- 
life.  Defects  of  sight  and  hearing  are  noted  and 
remedies  suggested;  measures  are  also  taken  to 
avoid  hysteria,  chorea,  and  other  school  diseases. 
On  the  appearance  of  certain  diseases  the  children 
are  sent  home  by  the  inspector  with  proper  advice 
to  the  parents. 

In  New  York  City,  in  addition  to  diphtheria,  mumps, 
and  the  exanthemata,  children  are  excluded  for  the 
following  diseases — a  plan  which  may  well  be  adopted 
by  all  cities  practicing  school  inspection:  Trachoma, 
scabies,  impetigo,  favus,  pediculosis,  acute  conjunc- 
tivitis, ringworm,  and  tonsilitis. 

Of  these  diseases  trachoma  needs  special  mention, 
for  it  has  begun  to  be  quite  prevalent  in  certain  sea- 
board towns,  and,  in  consequence  of  our  great  facilities 
for  transportation,  it  is  likely  to  appear  at  any  place. 


io8       Outlines  of  Practical  Sanitation 

This  disease  was  imported  some  years  ago  by  south- 
and  east-Europe  emigrants  to  New  York;  it  is  a 
contagious  granulation  of  the  eyelid  which  often 
leads  to  loss  of  sight;  it  is  often  overlooked  and  mis- 
taken for  simple  granulation  which  is  non-contagious. 
Trachoma  is  transmitted  by  soiled  towels,  the  hands, 
etc.,  and  it  is  well  to  caution  children,  and  every  one 
else  in  fact,  against  using  public  towels  on  the  face. 
From  time  to  time  school  inspection  should  also 
include  measurements  of  height,  weight,  and  other 
necessary  physical  data,  and  accurate  records  kept 
for  future  use.  Inspectors  should  likewise  be  given 
authority  and  held  responsible  for  the  entire  sanitary 
condition  of  the  buildings.  School  inspection  has 
not  only  limited  the  spread  of  disease  in  the  locality 
where  it  has  been  practiced,  but  it  has  abolished 
the  necessity  for  closing  schools  even  in  the  face  of 
of  an  approaching  epidemic. 


CHAPTER    VII 
Car  Sanitation 

AR  sanitation  is  a  new  subject  for  a  work 
on  hygiene,  yet  it  is  attracting  consider- 
able attention,  for  the  use  of  cars  as  a 
means  of  travel  is  getting  to  be  such  a 
necessary  factor  in  our  daily  lives  that  the  public 
feel  that  those  corporations  having  public  franchises 
owe  it  as  a  duty  to  provide  for  the  convenience  and 
health  of  their  patrons.  Car  sanitation — of  railway- 
cars  we  shall  first  speak — is  almost  everywhere  neg- 
lected and  no  provision,  or  scarcely  any,  has  been 
made  for  the  health  of  the  travellers.  Water  turned 
into  a  tank  from  a  hose  in  the  station  and  ice  handled 
by  a  dirty  workman  are  every-day  occurrences.  Ven- 
tilation and  heating  are  things  unknown,  as  is  shown 
by  the  miserable  overheating  of  nearly  all  railway- 
cars — indeed  these  overheated  cars  are  the  great 
trials  of  an  ordinary  journey.  Excreta  are  dis- 
posed of  by  a  method  as  crude  as  that  of  the  American 

Indian,  even  the  "method  of  Moses"  is  neglected. 

109 


no       Outlines  of  Practical  Sanitation 


FURNISHING  AND  CLEANING 

Although  the  defects  are  glaring  there  is  no  com- 
plicated system  necessary  for  getting  cars  up  to  a 
sanitary  standard,  for  car  sanitation,  as  the  Com- 
mittee of  the  American  Public  Health  Association  has 
put  it,  is  "simply  car  cleanliness;  cleanliness  of  the 
car  itself  and  its  contents,  including  the  furnishings, 
its  air,  and  its  supply  of  water  and  food." 

In  regard  to  the  construction  of  the  cars  a  good 
deal  might  be  said:  the  principal  thing,  from  the 
sanitary  viewpoint,  is  that  the  interior  finish  should 
be  of  hard  and  polished  wood,  as  this  affords  less 
chance  for  the  collection  of  dust  and  dirt.  The  fur- 
nishings should  be,  if  possible,  of  some  non-absorbent 
material  which  is  readily  removed  so  as  to  be  more 
easily  cleaned. 

In  sleeping-cars  the  utmost  cleanliness  should  be 
observed  with  the  bedding.  The  use  of  blankets 
which  are  washed  only  once  in  six  months,  a  fact 
admitted  by  a  certain  railroad  official,  is  most  insani- 
tary. Blankets  should  be  discarded  for  some  more 
washable  material. 

Cleaning  of  the  cars  is  an  important  factor;  this 
should  be  done  frequently  and  thoroughly  with  plenty 
of  soap  and  water,  and  the  whole  car  should  be  dis- 
infected at  intervals  with  formaldehyde  gas  or  some 
other  standard  sterilizing  agent.  Much  of  the  present- 
day  car  disinfection  is  about  as  efficient  in  preventing 


Car  Sanitation  1 1 1 

disease  as  the  protection  afforded  by  wearing  amu- 
lets around  the  neck. 

Fouling  the  cars  by  expectoration  should,  of  course, 
be  absolutely  prohibited.  It  is  hardly  necessary  to 
have  cuspidors  in  the  ordinary  coaches.  The  smoker 
and  the  spitter  perhaps  have  a  right  to  defile  their 
own  houses,  but  they  have  no  right  to  force  their 
filthy  habits  on  the  public;  this  should,  at  least,  be 
confined  to  the  smoking-car. 

VENTILATION  AND  HEATING 

Ventilation  and  heating  are  probably  the  most  de- 
fective sanitary  arrangements  met  with  in  car  travel; 
it  is  claimed,  perhaps  justly,  that  there  has  been  much 
difficulty  in  getting  a  system  which  will  meet  the  nec- 
essary' requirements;  but  Dr.  Dudley,  chemist  to  the 
Pennsylvania  Railroad  at  Altoona,  has  devised  a 
method  which  bids  fair  to  be  a  great  improvement 
over  the  old-time  cars.  Each  passenger-coach  is 
made  to  seat  sixty  people,  and  the  method  devised 
by  Dr.  Dudley  undertakes  to  furnish  60,000  cubic 
feet  per  hour  of  fresh-heated  air,  that  is  1000  cubic 
feet  per  hour  for  each  passenger. 

The  method  is  very  simple,  and  is  described  by 
the  originator  as  follows:  "It  consists  in  taking  air 
from  the  outside  in  through  two  hoods  A  (Fig.  29) 
at  diagonally  opposite  corners  of  the  car,  thence 
through  down-takes  B  underneath  the  hoods  to  the 
spaces  C,  one  on  each  side  underneath  the  car  floor, 


1 1 2       Outlines  of  Practical  Sanitation 

bounded  by  the  floor,  the  false  bottom,  the  outside 
sill,  and  nearest  intermediate  sill.  These  spaces, 
which  are  in  section  about  14  X  7^  inches,  extend 


FIG.  29. — Cross-section  of  a  Car,  showing  Method  of  Heating  and  Ven- 
tilation.    (From  a  drawing  by  Dr.  Dudley.) 

the  whole  length  of  the  car.  From  these  spaces  the 
air  passes  up  through  the  floor  by  means  of  proper 
apparatus  over  the  heating  system  E,  thence  out 
into  the  car,  and  finally  escapes  from  the  car  through 


Car  Sanitation  113 

ventilators  X  situated  on  the  centre  line  of  the  upper 
deck. 

"The  heating  system  consists  of  pipe-radiators  N. 
The  pipes  extend  nearly  the  whole  length  of  the  car, 
and  are  enclosed  in  a  continuous  boxing.  The  heat- 
ing substance  is  steam  from  the  locomotive,  and  is 
supplied  to  the  radiators  at  the  middle  of  the  car; 
the  condensed  water  is  returned  to  the  middle  of 
the  car  and  from  there  allowed  to  flow  through 
proper  traps  to  the  track.  It  will  thus  be  seen 
that  the  cold  air  coming  up  through  the  floor  into 
the  heater  boxes  E  divides  and  passes  in  contact 
with  the  heater  pipes  each  way  to  the  tubes  under 
the  seats  F,  which  carry  it  to  the  aisle.  The  tubes 
under  the  seats  serve  in  some  measure  as  a  foot- 
warmer." 

The  whole  system  of  ventilation  is  controlled  by 
opening  or  closing  the  ventilators  on  the  roof.  The 
system  has  been  a  success  experimentally  and  prac- 
tically, in  regard  to  both  the  heating  and  the 
amount  of  fresh  air  introduced;  and  is  now  applied 
to  all  new  cars  being  built  for  the  Pennsylvania 
lines. 

DISPOSAL  OF  EXCRETA 

The  prevalent  method  of  disposing  of  excreta — 
the  most  primitive  to  be  imagined — in  scattering  it 
over  the  road-bed  is  dangerous  to  a  high  degree, 
and  there  seems  to  be  no  reason  why  disease  should 


1 1 4       Outlines  of  Practical  Sanitation 

not   be   (perhaps   it   has   been)    transmitted   in   this 
way;  there  is  no  doubt  but  that  many  people  travel 


FIG.  30. — Section  of  Dry  Closet  to  be  used  in  Railway-cars. 

who   are   in   the   incipient    stages    of    typhoid   fever, 
and  the  discharges  from  such,  falling  into  the  drain- 


Car  Sanitation  115 

age  area  of  small  streams,  which  may  be  some 
one's  water-supply,  would  be  a  positive  source  of 
danger. 

Some  form  of  dry  closet  seems  to  me  to  furnish 
the  best  method  of  disposal.  Fig.  30  shows  a  device 
of  this  kind,  which  the  author  offers  as  meeting  all 
sanitary  requirements  and  as  being  readily  available. 
The  seat  and  fixtures  in  the  car  are  the  same  as  used 
at  present,  but  underneath  the  floor  of  the  car  is 
attached  a  box  containing  a  galvanized  pail;  in  this 
is  put  sifted-coal  ashes  or  some  fine  dry  earth  to  the 
depth  of  four  or  five  inches;  this  would  be  sufficient 
deodorant  and  absorbent  without  any  additional 
treatment  until  the  end  of  the  run,  when  the  pail 
should  be  removed  through  a  door  on  the  outside 
of  the  box,  emptied,  aired,  and  perhaps  repainted. 
The  contents  removed  could  be  stored  in  covered 
bins  and  sold  for  fertilizer. 


DRINKING  WATER 

The  drinking  water  furnished  in  railway-cars  is, 
of  course,  taken  from  the  tap  in  the  various  cities 
from  which  they  start  or  through  which  they  pass; 
unfortunately  in  some  cities  the  water-supply  is  very 
bad,  and  it  hardly  seems  right  to  subject  the 
travelling  public  to  dangers  so  easily  avoided.  It 
is  probable,  too,  that  transportation  companies, 
owning  privileges  granted  by  the  general  public, 


1 1 6       Outlines  of  Practical  Sanitation 

owe  more  to  their  patrons   than  a  city  owes  to  its 
citizens. 

In  regard  to  ice  much  more  care  should  be  used 
than  is  commonly  done;  although  the  ice  itself  may 
be  pure,  the  contact  with  soiled  hands  is  a  possible 
source  of  danger.  I  have  learned  that  recently  the 
Pennsylvania  Railroad  Company  has  issued  orders 
for  the  men  who  handle  ice  to  wear  white  cotton 
gloves;  such  sanitation  seems  unworthy  the  usual 
progressiveness  of  a  great  railroad.  The  only  way, 
only  sanitary  way,  to  handle  ice  is  with  tongs  and 
with  these  alone.  The  drinking- fountain  is  hardly 
available  for  cars,  but  the  public  should  be  advised 
to  bring  their  own  drinking-cups. 


STREET-CARS 

Trolley-  and  street-cars  require  a  word  in  sanitary 
affairs.  Most  lines,  especially  suburban  lines,  are 
poorly  equipped  with  rolling  stock,  and  as  a  result 
the  open  summer  car  is  used  more  often  and  longer 
than  it  should  be;  it  is  undoubtedly  the  source  of  the 
many  colds  which  affect  the  patrons  of  such  lines  in 
late  summer.  In  most  places  these  cars  should  prob- 
ably not  be  used  more  than  two  months  in  the 
whole  year,  and  in  a  great  many  places  in  the  north- 
ern parts  of  the  country  they  are  undesirable  at  any 
season.  The  only  good  word  that  can  be  said  for 
the  open  car  is  that  the  ventilation  is  good,  but 


Car  Sanitation  1 1 7 

often  it  is  too  good.  In  wet  weather,  open  cars 
should  always  be  replaced  by  closed  ones. 

The  closed  car  presents  the  usual  defects  of  insuffi- 
cient ventilation  and  with  it  insufficient  heating 
in  cold  weather.  While  the  railway-car  is  almost 
invariably  overheated,  the  street-car  is  almost 
always  underheated,  and  to  these  cold  cars  have 
been  attributed  the  undue  prevalence  of  pneumonia 
occurring  in  some  of  the  larger  cities  during  certain 
periods  of  the  year;  of  course  it  must  not  be  forgotten 
that  street-cars  need  not  be  kept  as  warm  as  railway- 
cars,  for  passengers  in  street-cars  are  always  clad 
for  outdoor  weather — a  temperature  of  60°  F.  would 
probably  be  sufficient. 

A  good  many  street-cars  are  heated  with  stoves, 
yet  nothing  more  defective  could  be  imagined,  for 
the  upper  part  of  the  car  gets  fairly  warm,  while  a 
stratum  of  cold  air  settles  down  around  one's  feet. 
Electric  heaters  placed  under  the  seats  appear  to 
give  better  results,  but  in  very  cold  weather  they 
seem  to  be  of  inadequate  size;  the  proper  way  would 
be  to  have  electric  heaters  of  sufficient  capacity  with  a 
fresh-air  inlet  on  the  outside  of  the  car,  so  that  fresh- 
heated  air  could  be  furnished  at  the  same  time;  and 
fresh  air  is  sometimes  sadly  needed. 

With  the  great  overcrowding  of  street-cars,  which 
is  a  daily  occurrence  on  many  suburban  lines,  proper 
ventilation  is  almost  impossible  by  any  method  or 
system.  Street-car  companies  should  be  forbidden 
by  law  to  carry  more  than  the  seating  capacity  of 


1 1 8       Outlines  of  Practical  Sanitation 

the  car,  as  is  done  in  many  European  cities;  to  be 
sure,  this  belongs  to  the  domain  of  the  legislator, 
but  it  is  one  of  the  first  steps  in  the  sanitation  of 
street-cars. 

Another  important  point  in  the  heating  and  ven- 
tilation is  that  the  ends  of  the  cars  should  be  closed 
by  glass  windows  and  doors;  by  this  means  a  draft 
of  cold  air  does  not  rush  through  the  car  every  time 
the  door  is  opened.  Then,  too,  the  open-end  car  is 
cruel  and  unjust  to  the  employees,  in  that  they  are 
exposed  to  all  states  of  weather;  indeed,  it  is  even 
dangerous,  for  a  man  facing  a  cold  wind  at  zero  tem- 
perature is  likely  to  get  so  benumbed  that  he  has 
not  proper  control  of  the  car,  and  accidents  may 
result — not  from  the  carelessness  of  the  motorman, 
but  from  the  negligence  and  penuriousness  of  the 
company. 

The  cleaning  and  disinfection  of  street-cars  should 
be  attended  to  thoroughly  and  carefully,  for  with 
the  increase  of  travel,  following  the  advent  of  elec- 
trical power,  there  is  increased  danger  from  the 
spreading  of  contagious  diseases.  Expectoration  in 
street-cars  should,  of  course,  be  absolutely  forbidden; 
it  is  illegal  in  most  places  and  its  abolishment  rests 
simply  with  the  transportation  companies.  It  is 
strange  that  with  our  enlightened  and  progressive 
civilization  we  have  to  have  anti-spitting  signs  defacing 
our  streets,  our  public  halls,  and  our  public  con- 
veyances. 


CHAPTER  VIII 


The   Cause  and  Prevention  of  Contagious 
and  Infectious  Diseases 


HIS  is  a  class  of  diseases  generally  known 
as  preventable,  in  contrast  to  those 
diseases  caused  by  the  wear  and  tear 
of  the  machinery  of  the  human  body 
which  are  inevitable,  sooner  or  later.  There  is  no 
real  reason  why  any  one  should  ever  have  smallpox, 
typhoid  fever,  and  the  like,  for  we  know  exactly 
how  to  prevent  these  and  certain  other  diseases, 
but  when  it  comes  to  do  it  we  often  fail  and 
have  to  admit  that  our  theories  are  away  ahead 
of  our  practice;  very  often  this  failure  is  due  to  the 
lack  of  understanding  and  education  of  the  public 
about  the  subject.  Some  of  these  diseases  are  trans- 
mitted directly  from  the  person  having  the  disease, 
others  by  food  and  drink  contaminated  with  the  dis- 
charges of  the  sick,  and  still  others  by  inoculation 
through  wounds  or  by  the  bite  of  certain  animals 
and  insects. 


1 20       Outlines  of  Practical  Sanitation 


SMALLPOX 

The  cause  of  smallpox  is  not  definitely  known, 
except  that  it  is  likely  a  bacterium  residing  in  the 
skin  of  the  person  having  the  disease.  The  method 
of  preventing  smallpox  is  by  vaccination  and  revac- 
cination,  isolation  of  the  sick,  quarantine  of  the 
exposed,  and  disinfection  of  the  surroundings  and 
belongings  of  the  patient  after  recovery  or  death. 

As  to  the  value  of  vaccination  there  can  no  longer 
be  any  question;  although  one  or  two  vaccinations 
protect  most  persons  more  or  less  through  life,  it  is 
well  to  remember  that  a  person  has  contracted  small- 
pox who  has  been  recently  and  successfully  vaccinated. 
The  fact  is  that  as  long  as  a  person  is  susceptible 
to  vaccination,  just  so  long  is  he  susceptible  to  small- 
pox, and  such  a  person  should  be  revaccinated  as 
often  as  vaccination  "takes."  We  may  put  it  down 
as  an  undeniable  fact — and  I  here  quote  Dr.  Lee — 
that,  "next  to  the  rising  of  the  sun,  nothing  is  more 
absolutely  certain  than  the  fact  that  successful  vac- 
cination with  reliable  lymph,  repeated  with  sufficient 
frequency,  is  a  sure  preventive  against  smallpox." 

Any  one  who  wishes  to  know  what  smallpox  was 
in  the  years  gone  by,  especially  when  introduced  into 
virgin  soil,  should  read  George  Catlin's  account  of 
the  extinction  of  the  Mandan  Indians  in  the  summer 
of  1838.  The  disease  was  so  virulent  that  many  died 
in  a  few  hours  after  becoming  infected,  and  in  a  few 


Contagious  and  Infectious  Diseases    121 

weeks  the  whole  tribe  was  extinct;  the  disease  then 
spread  to  the  surrounding  tribes,  and  within  four 
or  five  months  it  is  supposed  that  at  least  25,000 
Indians  perished. 

As  the  period  of  infection  in  smallpox  extends 
from  the  beginning  of  the  disease  until  all  scabs  have 
become  detached  and  desquamation  has  ceased,  the 
sick  should  be  isolated  for  that  length  of  time.  All 
communities  should  have  sanitary  hospitals  for  the 
isolation  of  such  cases,  for  domiciliary  quarantine — 
quarantining  the  sick  with  the  well — is  a  very  unsat- 
isfactory procedure.  After  the  removal  of  the  sick, 
the  persons  exposed  should  be  quarantined  fourteen 
days,  and  if  no  case  then  develops  they  are  likely 
safe. 

The  disinfection  of  a  room  occupied  by  a  person 
sick  with  smallpox  should  be  carried  out  as  follows: 
The  ceiling,  walls,  and  floor  should  be  washed  with 
a  solution  of  corrosive  sublimate  (i  to  1000),  and  the 
paper  or  paint  scraped  off.  All  the  furniture  should 
likewise  be  washed  and  all  bed-linen  soaked  in  cor- 
rosive-sublimate solution,  and  then  boiled  or  carried 
to  a  steam-disinfecting  plant.  Woollen  goods  and 
books  must  be  opened  up  as  much  as  possible  and 
exposed  to  formalin  gas.  Mattresses  should  be 
moistened  with  a  solution  of  formalin  or  bichloride, 
and  then  exposed  to  gaseous  disinfection  or  removed 
to  a  steam  disinfector,  if  one  is  available.  If  a  mat- 
tress is  badly  soiled  and  no  steam  disinfection  possible, 
it  should  be  destroyed  by  fire. 


122       Outlines  of  Practical  Sanitation 

The  gaseous  disinfection  of  a  room  is  now  generally 
done  by  formaldehyde  gas;  the  room  is  closed  and 
all  cracks  and  openings  sealed  with  gummed-paper 
strips,  and  the  formaldehyde  then  set  free,  in  the 
proportion  of  20  ounces  of  a  reliable  preparation  to 
1000  cubic  feet  of  air-space.  There  are  many  differ- 
ent methods  and  appliances  for  liberating  this  gas 
and  many  of  them  are  inefficient.  The  simplest 
method,  and  one  which  has  given  very  effective  results, 
is  the  method  of  Breslau.  The  apparatus  consists  of 
a  kettle,  a  tripod,  and  a  vessel  for  alcohol;  the  kettle 
is  partially  filled  with  hot  water  and  the  alcohol 
in  the  vessel  underneath  ignited.  As  soon  as  the 
water  boils  formaldehyde  is  poured  into  the  kettle 
in  sufficient  quantity,  and  the  room  left  closed  for 
twenty-four  hours;  it  is  then  thrown  open  and  thor- 
oughly aired.  The  formaldehyde  candles  offered  for 
sale  and  for  which  much  is  claimed  are  wholly  unreli- 
able. 

MEASLES 

The  exact  cause  of  measles  is  unknown;  the  con- 
tagious principle  is  probably  contained  in  the  skin 
and  discharges  from  the  mouth  and  nose.  The  infec- 
tious period  extends  from  the  beginning  of  the  earliest 
symptoms  to  the  end  of  the  catarrhal  and  desqua- 
mative  stages.  The  only  preventive  is  isolation  of 
the  sick,  and  disinfection  of  the  infected  places  and 
things. 


Contagious  and  Infectious  Diseases     123 


SCARLET  FEVER 

Scarlet  fever  is  an  acute  contagious  disease,  the 
contagion  of  which  has  great  tenacity  of  life,  although 
limited  in  range;  it  is  probably  spread  by  exhalations 
from  the  skin  and  discharges  from  the  nose  and 
throat.  It  has  been  spread  by  contaminated  milk 
and  by  exposed  clothing  a  year  old.  The  only  pre- 
ventive is  isolation  of  the  sick, — for  at  least  a  week 
after  complete  recovery, — and  disinfection. 


WHOOPING-COUGH 

Whooping-cough  is  a  contagious  disease  caused  by 
the  bacillus  of  Afanassieff,  which,  in  spite  of  its  name, 
has  no  great  resisting  power.  The  infectious  period 
.lasts  at  least  until  the  end  of  the  spasmodic  cough; 
and  the  only  means  of  prophylaxis  is  isolation — 
slight  isolation  is  sufficient  for  exemption — and  dis- 
infection. 

DIPHTHERIA 

Diphtheria  is  caused  by  the  bacillus  of  Loeffler, 
which  is  supposed  to  live  in  polluted  soil;  the  bac_ 
teria  find  lodgment  in  the  upper  air-passages  of  those 
exposed,  and  cause  not  only  a  local  inflammation  but 
a  general  infection.  While  the  contagion  is  limited 
to  a  few  feet  it  has  great  strength  of  life.  Diphtheria 


I  24       Outlines  of  Practical  Sanitation 

affects  domestic  animals,  especially  cats,  and  this  may 
be  one  of  the  ways  of  transmitting  the  disease.  The 
writer  has  seen  at  least  one  case  in  which  the  disease 
apparently  followed  sore  throat  in  the  family  cat. 
The  disease  has  also  been  transmitted  by  infected 
food-supplies  such  as  milk. 

The  period  of  infection  extends  from  the  onset  of 
the  symptoms  until  virulent  bacteria  have  disappeared 
from  the  throat.  In  cases  where  bacterial  exam- 
ination is  not  available,  the  patient  should  be  iso- 
lated until  all  the  symptoms  of  the  disease  have  dis- 
appeared. The  prophylaxis  of  diphtheria  consists 
in  the  sanitary  measures  relative  to  household  hygiene: 
clean,  dry  houses  and  cellars  and  clean  back  yards, 
for  it  has  been  found  that  this  disease  quite  often 
appears  in  dark,  damp  houses  with  filthy  surround- 
ings. The  other  means  of  prevention  are  isolation 
of  the  sick,  the  use  of  antitoxin,  quarantine  of  ex- 
posed persons,  and  disinfection. 

Of  the  value  of  antitoxin  as  a  preventive  and 
curative  agent  it  is  hardly  necessary  to  say  a  word. 
The  author  has  personally  seen  the  most  astonishing 
results  following  sufficient  dosage  of  this  remedy;  it 
seems,  as  manufactured  at  present,  to  be  absolutely 
devoid  of  danger.  The  only  danger  consists,  if  I  may 
quote  a  certain  chemist,  "in  not  giving  enough  of 
the  remedy.'*  In  some  persons  an  exanthematous 
rash  simulating  scarlet  fever  follows  its  use,  but  this 
is  of  trifling  import. 


Contagious  and  Infectious  Diseases     125 


TYPHUS  FEVER 

Typhus  fever  is  an  exceedingly  contagious  disease 
which  infects  the  area  surrounding  the  sick  with  great 
intensity,  and  spreads  with  great  rapidity.  The  cause 
is  likely  some  specific  germ  not  yet  isolated.  The  sole 
measures  of  prevention  are  those  which  relate  to 
overcrowding  and  filth,  prompt  isolation  of  the  sick 
with  plenty  of  fresh  air,  quarantine  of  exposed  per- 
sons for  fourteen  days,  and  disinfection.  The  author 
happened  to  be  resident  physician  on  Blackwell's  Island 
during  the  last  appearance  of  this  disease  in  New  York 
harbor.  The  cases  which  occurred  on  the  Island  were 
quickly  isolated  in  tents  and  rigid  quarantine  main- 
tained, with  the  result  of  the  speedy  disappearance 
of  the  diseases. 

CEREBROSPINAL  FEVER 

Cerebrospinal  fever  is  an  infectious  and  commu- 
nicable disease  caused  by  the  diplococcus  intercellu- 
laris  meningititis.  The  germ  is  of  feeble  growth,  but 
resists  considerable  drying;  it  has  been  isolated  from 
the  nasal  discharges,  the  cerebrospinal  fluid,  and 
from  soiled  handkerchiefs  weeks  after  infection. 

In  order  to  limit  the  spread  of  this  disease  it  is 
necessary  to  exercise  general  cleanliness  about  the 
premises,  and,  above  all,  cleanliness  in  the  sick-room, 
the  destruction  of  clothing  soiled  by  discharges  from 


126       Outlines  of  Practical  Sanitation 

the  nose,  and  the  careful  disinfection  of  all  towels, 
clothing,  and  bedding  used  by  the  sick;  isolation,  and 
finally  the  disinfection  of  the  room  occupied  by  the 
patient. 

TUBERCULOSIS 

Tuberculosis,    the    dread    disease    which    kills    one- 
seventh  of  the  human  race — which  kills  100,000  every 


FIG.  31. — Mt.  Alto  Tuberculosis  Camp.      (From  photograph  by 
Dr.  J.  W.  Rothrock.) 

year  in  the  United  States — is  the  price  that  humanity 
has  paid  for  civilization,  for  the  savage  in  his  natural 
state  is  exempt  from  the  ravages  of  what  has  aptly 
been  called  the  Great  White  Plague.  Tuberculosis 


Contagious  and  Infectious  Diseases     127 

is  caused  by  that  resisting  germ — the  bacillus  tuber- 
culosis— which,  although  dried,  still  lives  and  floats 
in  the  atmosphere  everywhere  and  anywhere  until 
a  fertile  spot  is  reached  upon  some  devitalized  or 
overcivilized  mortal. 

The  disease  is  generally  spread  by  the  expectoration 


Fio.  32. — A  Tuberculosis  Camp  in  the  Adirondacks.     (From  photo- 
graph by  Review  of  Reviews  Co. ) 

of  those  having  pulmonary  tuberculosis;  diseased 
meat  and  milk  of  animals  are  also  factors  in  causing 
the  disease,  which  is  more  prone  to  develop  in  those 
who  have  a  certain  predisposing  weakness,  in  which 
heredity  seems  to  play  an  important  part. 

The    method    of    prevention,    as    outlined    by    the 
Committee   on  Tuberculosis   of  the  American   Public 


128       Outlines  of  Practical  Sanitation 

Health  Association,  which  represents  the  prevailing 
opinion  at  present,  is  as  follows: 

(i)  Notification  and  registration  by  health  authori- 
ties of  all  cases.  (2)  The  thorough  disinfection  of  all 
houses  in  which  tuberculosis  has  occurred.  (3)  The 
establishment  of  special  hospitals  for  the  treatment 
of  the  disease.  (4)  Inspection  of  dairies  and  slaughter- 
houses and  the  destruction  of  tuberculosis  dairy- 
cattle.  (5)  Enforcement  of  laws  against  public  spit- 
ting. (6)  Compulsory  disinfection  of  hotel  rooms, 
sleep'ng-car  berths,  and  steamboat  cabins  which  have 
bsen  occupied  by  consumptives. 

Of  the  open-air  treatment  of  the  early  stages  of 
consumption  too  much  cannot  be  .said;  there  are 
various  camps  and  sanitoria  in  many  places  in  this 
country  and  they  are  doing  a  good  work.  This  treat- 
ment is  simply  a  return  of  humanity  to  its  primal 
condition,  and  while  one's  back  yard  may  be  sufficient, 
most  patients  will  do  better  with  the  air  and  invig- 
orating influences  of  mountain  woodland.  The  accom- 
panying photograph  (Fig.  31)  shows  a  tuberculosis 
camp  on  the  State  Forestry  reservation  at  Mt.  Alto, 
Pa.  This  camp,  under  the  able  management  of  Dr. 
Rothrock,  has  simply  done  wonders. 

Out  on  the  banks  of  the  Missouri  the  converse  of 
this  picture  is  presented.  The  predatory  Sioux — the 
descendants  of  the  wild  raiders  of  the  past — have 
passed  from  the  teepee  to  the  house,  from  aboriginal 
life  to  civilization  without  the  sanitary  influences  of 
the  latter.  Most  of  their  houses  (?)  18  X  24  feet  are  pro- 


Contagious  and  Infectious  Diseases     129 

vided  with  but  one-half  of  a  window  and  a  door;  here 
the  family — from  five  to  twenty — sleep  nightly,  and 
the  result?  From  50  to  75  per  cent  die  of  "the  sick- 
ness," as  an  old  chieftain,  John  Grass,  who  had  lost 
his  seven  sons,  called  it. 


TYPHOID  FEVER 

The  cause  of  typhoid  fever  is  the  bacillus  typhosus, 
which  unfortunately  possesses  unusual  strength  of 
life;  living  for  some  years  in  polluted  soil,  growing 
and  thriving  in  filthy  water  and  milk,  finally  frozen 
up  in  a  cake  of  ice  for  two  or  three  months,  and  in 
the  end  thawing  out  and  still  possessing  energy  enough, 
perhaps,  to  make  trouble  for  some  one — such  is  the 
vitality  of  the  bacillus  typhosus. 

The  poison  of  typhoid  leaves  the  body  by  way  of 
the  feces  and  urine;  the  bacilli  are  more  prevalent 
in  the  feces  during  the  height  of  the  disease,  but  the 
reverse  is  true  of  the  urine  which  contains  the  greater 
number  during  convalescence  and  this  continues  for 
some  weeks  after  recovery. 

The  poison  is  usually  transmitted  by  infected  water 
or  milk.  It  has  also  been  found  that  flies  are  dis- 
seminators of  the  disease,  on  account  of  their  breeding 
on  fecal  matter  and  feeding  in  neighboring  kitchens; 
this  was  especially  observed  in  the  camps  of  the 
Spanish  War,  where  the  terrible  epidemics  of  typhoid 
were  directly  traceable  to  this  source.  Experiments 
also  have  demonstrated  that  typhoid  bacilli  will 


I3o 


Outlines  of  Practical  Sanitation 


develop  in  the  tracks  of  flies  which  have  been  allowed 
to  settle  on  typhoid  discharges  and  then  made  to 
walk  over  suitable  culture  medium  (Fig.  33).  Not 


FlG.  33. — Foot-prints  of  a  House  fly.  Every  white  spot  means  thou- 
sands of  bacteria.  (From  photograph  by  X.  Y.  Underwood  in 
u  Country  Life.") 


only  are  typhoid  bacilli  carried  on  the  feet  of  flies, 
but  Celli  has  recovered  virulent  germs  from  their  feces, 
and  a  number  of  other  observers  have  shown  that 
the  cholera  vibrio,  the  anthrax  bacillus,  styphylococci, 


Contagious  and  Infectious  Diseases     i  3  i 

and  streptococci  can  also  pass  uninjured  through  the 
bodies  of  flies. 

Of  all  the  numerous  flies  which  breed  in  or  fre- 
quent human  feces  only  certain  ones  are  frequenters 
of  houses  and  kitchens.  After  extended  investiga- 
tion L.  O.  Howard,  U.  S.  entomologist,  found  that 
the  following  are  the  ones  most  likely  to  transmit 
the  disease:  the  house-fly,  the  little  house-fly,  the 
fruit-fly,  the  stable-fly,  the  green-bottle  fly,  the  blue- 
bottle fly,  and  the  Sarcophagi.  All  these  are  rather 
distinct  species  and  can  readily  be  recognized  by  a 
little  study. 

The  means  of  preventing  typhoid  fever  consists  in 
obtaining  uncontaminated  water  and  food,  especially 
in  the  way  of  milk  and  raw  oysters;  the  screening  of 
the  house  to  keep  flies  out  and  the  thorough  disinfec- 
tion of  all  typhoid  discharges  (feces  and  urine)  by  a 
5  per  cent  solution  of  carbolic  acid,  a  10  per  cent 
solution  of  chloride  of  zinc,  a  solution  of  bichloride  of 
mercury  (i  to  1000),  or  a  solution  of  chloride  of  lime 
made  in  the  proportion  of  4  ounces  to  i  gallon  of 
water.  As  a  corollary  cleanliness  of  one's  habitation  by 
means  of  the  rapid  disposal  of  manure  and  putrescible 
material,  and  the  keeping  of  all  such  material  out  of 
the  reach  of  flies,  is  desirable. 


132       Outlines  of  Practical  Sanitation 


CHOLERA 

Cholera  is  caused  by  a  specific  organism — the  comma 
bacillus — which  gets  into  the  body  by  way  of  the 
gastro-intestinal  tract  from  infected  water  or  food. 
It  is  readily  destroyed  by  drying  and  by  heat,  and 
fails  to  thrive  in  an  acid  medium,  but  is  not  destroyed 
by  freezing.  Cholera,  like  typhoid,  has  also  been 
transmitted  by  flies.  The  infectious  period  lasts  until 
complete  recovery.  The  method  of  prevention  con 
sists  in  the  use  of  pure  water  and  uncontaminated 
food,  the  isolation  of  the  patient,  and  the  thorough 
disinfection  of  all  discharges. 

MALARIAL  FEVERS 

The  malarial  germ  is  a  protozoan  which  inhabits 
the  red  blood-cells  of  those  affected  and  is  trans- 
mitted to  man  by  the  bite  of  the  various  species  of 
Anopheles.  The  mosquito  only  acts  as  a  carrier  of 
the  poison,  and  can  only  infect  a  person  after  having 
bitten  one  having  the  disease  or  at  least  having  the 
protozoan  in  the  blood;  the  time  required  for  the 
parasite  to  develop  in  the  cells  until  ready  to  be  dis- 
charged into  another  subject  is  ten  days  (according 
to  Theobald  Smith),  and,  as  the  incubation  period  is 
ten  days,  about  twenty  days  would  elapse  before 
another  case  could  develop.  The  infectious  period 
lasts  for  man)/  years,  and  it  is  said  that  the  mosquito 
may  become  infected  from  those  old  cases,  even  when 


Contagious  and  Infectious  Diseases     133 

the  parasite  cannot  be  found  in  the  blood.  It  is 
interesting  to  note  that  Dr.  Koch  has  recently  made 
the  brilliant  discovery  that  "  apparently  healthy 
negro  children  in  the  pestilential  districts  of  Africa 
constantly  carry  large  numbers  of  malarial  parasites 
in  their  blood." 

The  means  of  preventing  the  spread  of  malarial 
fevers  consist  in  the  elimination  of  the  mosquito  by 
drainage  of  the  breeding-places,  or  treatment  with 
kerosene,  screening  of  the  house  and  patients,  and 
the  use  of  quinine,  which  is,  of  course,  an  antidote 
for  the  disease. 

Mosquito  warfare  has  developed  into  a  science  of 
late,  and  much  is  being  done  in  this  respect  to  render 
certain  places  habitable  which  have  hitherto  been 
unfit  for  dwellings.  The  family  of  Anopheles  is  rep- 
resented in  the  United  States  by  three  species — 
A.  quadrimaculatus,  A.  punctipennis,  and  A.  crucians. 
I  have  found  the  two  former  species  rather  abundant 
in  certain  places  and  at  certain  times,  in  my  own 
locality  in  Southeastern  Pennsylvania,  but  only  once 
have  I  found  the  third  species,  which  seems  to  be 
rare. 

The  malarial  mosquito  frequents  ponds  and  rock- 
pools  in  wayside  brooks  (Fig.  34);  it  is  in  fact  a 
country  species  compared  with  the  culex — the  ordi- 
nary mosquito — which  breeds  in  rain-barrels,  cess- 
pools, or  any  stagnant  water  about  the  house.  The 
entire  life-history  of  the  mosquito  covers  a  period  of 
from  one  to  three  weeks,  depending  on  the  state  of 


i  34       Outlines  of  Practical  Sanitation 

the  weather,  a  fact  which  must  be  taken  into  account 
in  the  kerosene  treatment  of  pools. 

It  must  not  be  forgotten  that  small  fish,  almost  all 
varieties,  are  great  destroyers  of  mosquito  larva.     The 


YiG.  34. — Where  the  Malarial  Mosquito  Breeds. 
(Photograph  by  the  Author.) 

author  made  an  experiment  on  this  line  last  summer, 
by  introducing  several  small  catfish  into  a  bucket 
swarming  with  mosquito  larva;  the  next  morning 
the  water  was  perfectly  free  of  larva.  As  the  malarial 
mosquito  does  not  stray  very  far  from  home,  local 
action  counts  for  much. 


Contagious  and  Infectious  Diseases     135 


YELLOW  FEVER 

Yellow  fever  is  an  acute  disease  transmitted  to 
man  by  the  bite  of  a  certain  mosquito — the  Stegomyia 
fasciata — which  has  become  infected  by  biting  a 
former  case,  and  is  caused  by  this  means  alone.  The 
discovery  of  the  method  of  the  transmission  of  yellow 
fever,  and  the  adoption  of  preventive  methods  based 
on  this  discovery,  is  the  grandest  achievement  in 
sanitary  science  since  the  days  of  the  immortal  Jenner. 
This  mosquito  is  a  Southern  variety  and  does  not 
often  occur  north  of  Philadelphia;  it  is  also  a  domestic 
variety  and  rarely  strays  far  from  home. 

The  period  during  which  the  mosquito  can  take  up 
the  infection  lasts  only  for  the  first  three  days  of 
the  disease;  it  then  takes  about  twelve  days  for  the 
mosquito  to  become  capable  of  transmitting  the  disease 
which  lasts  during  her  (only  the  female  can  bite)  life- 
time, or  at  least  for  several  months.  The  period  of 
observation  should  be  five  days,  and  the  means  recom- 
mended for  preventing  the  spread  of  the  disease  are 
those  which  were  so  successfully  adopted  during 
the  American  occupation  of  Cuba: 

(1)  The  immediate  screening  of  the  patient  to  keep 
him  from  the  mosquito. 

(2)  Destruction  of  all  mosquitoes  and  their  breed- 
ing-places; and,  as  the  Stegomyia  breeds  about  houses 
in  rain-barrels,  etc.,  much  may  be  done  to  eliminate 


136       Outlines  of  Practical  Sanitation 

it  by  the  proper  screening  of  all  household  receptacles 
holding  water. 

(3)  The  destruction  by  fumigation  of  all  possibly 
infected  mosquitoes  on  the  premises  of  the  sick,  by 
pyrethrum  powder  or  by  sulphur.  Last  year  another 
culicide  was  used  in  New  Orleans  which  approaches 
more  the  ideal,  in  that  it  injures  nothing  but  the 
insects.  This  culicide  is  composed  of  equal  quanti- 
ties by  weight  of  carbolic  acid  and  gum  camphor, 
and  the  resultant  liquid  is  evaporated  slowly  in  the 
room — about  three  ounces  being  used  for  a  thousand 
cubic  feet  of  air-space. 

By  the  three  measures  mentioned  above,  and  by 
these  alone,  the  pest-ridden  city  of  Havana  was  freed 
from  yellow  fever  for  the  first  time  in  140  years; 
patients  were  even  treated  in  the  wards  of  an  ordi- 
nary hospital — only  they  were  thoroughly  screened. 
The  old  method  of  shot-gun  quarantine — in  the  light 
of  these  discoveries — partakes  of  the  methods  of  the 
Middle  Ages,  and  should  not  be  used.  In  Panama 
the  officials  have  recently  taken  up  the  plan  of  offer- 
ing a  prize  of  $100  for  every  case  of  yellow  fever 
reported  to  them,  hoping  by  this  means  to  prevent 
the  secreteing  of  cases,  which  always  leads  to  such 
bad  results. 


Contagious  and  Infectious  Diseases    137 


THE  PLAGUE 

The  plague  is  caused  by  the  bacillus  pestis  (Kitasito), 
a  rather  frail  germ  which,  although  it  dies  speedily 
when  dried,  can  live  for  months  in  water  or  milk, 
and  can  endure  a  great  amount  of  cold.  Infection 
takes  place  through  the  lungs,  from  clothing  and 
bedding  which  may  harbor  the  poison  for  a  long 
time;  it  also  takes  place  through  the  digestive  tract 
by  food  and  drink,  and  in  some  instances  the  poison 
is  transmitted  by  inoculation.  The  period  of  obser- 
vation should  be  fifteen  days,  and  the  patient  is  a 
source  of  infection  as  long  as  bacilli  may  be  found 
in  the  buboes,  the  blood,  and  urine. 

The  methods  of  prevention  are  isolation  of  the  sick, 
quarantine  of  the  exposed  for  fifteen  days,  the  use 
of  Haffkine's  or  Yersin's  serum,  general  sanitary 
cleanliness,  including  the  destruction  of  rats,  which 
seem  somehow  or  other  to  be  a  factor  in  transmitting 
the  poison,  and  thorough  fumigation  with  sulphur. 

Some  interesting  experiments  have  been  made 
which  tend  to  show  that  the  plague  may  possibly  be 
transmitted  by  fleas  from  infected  rats,  but  the  great 
difficulty  in  the  chain  of  evidence  is  that  the  flea 
inhabiting  plague-infected  rodents  has  not  yet  been 
made  to  bite  human  beings. 

Every  one  interested  in  sanitary  science  should 
read  De  Foe's  "History  of  the  Plague  in  London"; 
although  not  exactly  history,  for  De  Foe  was  only 


138       Outlines  of  Practical  Sanitation 

four  years  old  at  the  time,  it  nevertheless  gives  a  most 
interesting,  and  likely  a  faithful,  portrayal  of  the 
sanitary  affairs  in  England  at  the  time. 

HYDROPHOBIA 

Hydrophobia  is  a  virulent  infection  of  the  nervous 
system,  produced  by  inoculation  from  one  of  the 
lower  animals  having  the  disease:  the  dog,  fox,  wolf, 
or  cat.  It  is  principally  contracted  by  the  bite  of  a 
rabid  dog,  and  may  be  communicated  any  time  during 
the  illness  or  incubation  period,  which  sometimes 
extends  to  240  days. 

The  method  of  prevention  is  the  enforced  use  of 
the  muzzle  and  the  extermination  of  the  army  of 
worthless  curs  which  crowd  every  community,  the 
thorough  cauterization  of  suspected  wounds  with 
silver  nitrate,  and  the  institution  of  the  Pasteur  treat- 
ment; this  consists,  in  a  general  way,  of  the  injection 
of  a  solution  of  progressive  strengths,  made  from 
the  dried  medulla  of  an  infected  animal. 

ANTHRAX 

Anthrax  is  an  acute  infectious  disease  of  the  lower 
animals,  chiefly  sheep  and  cattle,  and  is  transmitted  to 
man  by  contact,  by  the  inhalation  of  dust  from 
diseased  hides,  or  by  the  ingestion  of  infected  flesh. 
The  preventive  measures  consist  in  isolation  of  the 
sick,  inoculation  with  protective  serum,  the  thorough 
destruction  by  cremation  of  animals  dead  of  anthrax, 


Contagious  and  Infectious  Diseases    139 

and  the  distribution  of  quicklime  in  large  quantities 
over  the  infected  land. 


GLANDERS 

Glanders  is  an  infectious  disease  of  the  horse, 
and  generally  transmitted  to  man  through  the  nasal 
mucous  membrane  during  contact  with  a  horse  sick 
with  the  disease;  inhalation  through  the  nose  or 
mouth  of  the  secretions  from  the  nose  of  another  case 
seems  sufficient  to  cause  the  disease.  Prevention 
consists  in  isolation,  destruction  by  fire  of  dead 
animals,  and  the  disinfection  of  stables  which  con- 
tained those  sick  of  the  disease. 

TETANUS 

Tetanus  is  a  specific  disease  caused  by  the  tetanus 
bacillus,  which  is,  fortunately,  an  anaerobic  germ; 
that  is,  it  is  likely  only  to  grow  in  deep  punctured 
wounds  shut  off  from  free  oxygen.  The  germ  is 
widely  distributed  in  the  soil,  although  seemingly 
more  prevalent  in  some  places  than  others.  Pre- 
vention consists  in  the  scrupulous  cleaning  and  dis- 
infection of  all  wounds,  however  trifling  they  may 
seem,  even  to  the  point  of  an  operation  if  necessary, 
the  destruction  of  all  dressings  used  on  tetanus  wounds, 
and  the  isolation  of  the  patient  from  the  surgical  cases. 


CHAPTER  IX 
Vital  Statistics 

IITAL  statistics  are  the  life- records  of  a  com- 
munity— the  records  of  birth,  marriage, 
disease,  and  death;  they  are  valuable  as  an 
index  of  the  prevalence  of  certain  diseases, 
an  indicator  of  the  general  health,  and  a  criterion  of 
the  sanitary  progress  that  is  being  made  from  time 
to  time.  The  value  of  knowing  these  facts  is  illustrated 
by  the  following:  Some  years  ago,  in  order  to  com- 
pare the  health  of  a  certain  rural  district  with  a  given 
urban  district,  statistics  were  carefully  collected  for 
a  stated  period,  and  among  other  facts  discovered 
was  the  surprising  one  that  this  rural  district — one 
of  the  garden-spots  of  Pennsylvania,  a  region  of  fine 
farms  and  picturesque  villages,  of  picnic  groves  and 
summer  residences — had  an  alarming  amount  of 
typhoid  fever,  just  as  much  as  the  great  city  district 
with  which  it  was  compared.  As  is  often  the  case  in 
rural  localities — the  disease  being  scattered  here  and 
there — no  one  suspected  the  real  state  of  affairs  until 
perception  was  sharpened  by  actual  figures. 

140 


Vital  Statistics  141 

Statistical  records  to  be  of  any  value  must  be 
exact,  the  diagnosis  of  disease  must  be  correct,  and, 
in  estimating  the  health  condition  of  a  place  from 
the  death- records,  due  allowance  must  be  made  for 
cases  which  really  belong  elsewhere,  if  such  is  the 
fact.  Some  time  since  in  a  lecture  on  hygiene  at  a 
Farmers'  Institute,  I  was  calling  attention  to  the 
poor  sanitary  condition  of  a  certain  place,  as  shown 
by  its  great  number  of  deaths,  when  I  was  inter- 
rupted with  the  retort  that  the  locality  in  question 
was  so  popular  that  people  went  there  to  die;  which, 
of  course,  was  not  quite  true.  It  is  a  fact,  however, 
that  certain  places  containing  health  resorts  and 
sanitariums  aid  in  distorting  the  vital  statistics  unless 
due  account  is  taken  of  them. 

In  regard  to  careful  diagnosis  the  following  is  worth 
repeating:  I  had  inquired  for  the  typhoid  death- 
rates  of  a  certain  third-class  city;  it  was  promptly 
and  kindly  forwarded  by  the  health  department  with 
the  added  note  that  "seven  of  the  deaths  reported 
were  not  due  to  typhoid  fever  but  to  other  compli- 
cations, such  as  cardiac  asthenia,  general  peritonitis, 
intestinal  perforation,  etc."  Any  one  can  readily  see 
that  the  vital  statistics  of  that  city  would  hardly  have 
much  real  value,  and  the  worst  part  of  it  is  that  the 
physicians  who  made  out  the  death-certificates  were 
really  the  ones  who  were  negligent. 


142       Outlines  of  Practical  Sanitation 


REGISTRATION  OF  BIRTHS 

The  registration  of  births  is  of  great  value,  if  cor- 
rectly kept,  for  comparison  with  the  death-rate  of  a 
country  in  indicating  the  amount  of  "race  suicide." 
A  great  many  irrelevant  questions  are  sometimes 
asked  on  birth-certificates;  for  sanitary  purposes  all 
that  is  required  is  the  date  and  place  of  birth,  sex, 
color,  legitimacy,  and  perhaps  age,  nativity,  and 
occupation  of  both  parents. 

REGISTRATION  OF  DISEASE 

The  registration  of  diseases  by  the  health  authori- 
ties is  of  vast  importance,  especially  diseases  of 
an  infectious  or  contagious  nature,  which  are  more 
or  less  preventible.  The  record  of  a  disease  like 
typhoid,  as  pointed  out  above,  is  a  most  valuable 
index  of  the  sanitary  condition  of  the  water-  and 
milk-supply  of  a  place,  and  the  utmost  attention 
should  be  paid  to  these  statistics. 

The  registration  returns  should  indicate  if  possible 
the  location  from  which  infection  was  derived,  for 
the  first  question  the  sanitary  executive  wants  to 
ask  about  any  of  these  diseases  is  "Where  did  it 
come  from?"  The  recently  organized  Pennsylvania 
Department  of  Health  require  the  reporting  of  the 
following  diseases:  Actinomycosis,  anthrax,  plague, 
cerebrospinal  meningitis,  chicken-pox,  cholera,  diph- 


Vital  Statistics  143 

theria,  dysentery,  erysipelas,  German  measles,  glanders, 
hydrophobia,  leprosy,  malarial  fever,  measles,  mumps, 
pneumonia,  puerperal  fever,  relapsing  fever,  scarlet 
fever,  smallpox,  tetanus,  trachoma,  trichiniasis,  tuber- 
culosis, typhoid  fever,  typhus  fever,  whooping-cough, 
and  yellow  fever. 

City  health  boards  should  also  require  the  registra- 
tion of  summer  diarrhoeas  of  children  and  the  parasitic 
skin  diseases.  It  is  needless  to  state  that  the  report- 
ing of  disease  should  be  made  promptly,  at  least 
within  twenty-four  hours  after  discovery  by  the 
physician.  Such  diseases  as  smallpox,  typhus  fever, 
yellow  fever,  and  the  plague  should  be  reported 
immediately,  as  every  minute  is  of  value  in  staying 
an  epidemic. 


REGISTRATION  OF  DEATHS 

A  death-record  should  comprise  the  cause,  date, 
place,  sex,  color,  occupation,  and  age  of  the  decedent. 
The  annual  death-rate,  which  varies  from  13  to  15 
per  1000  in  the  rural  districts  to  21  to  23  per  1000 
in  the  larger  cities,  is  found  by  dividing  the  number 
of  deaths  per  year  by  the  number  of  population  and 
multiplying  by  1000. 

The  value  of  death-records  as  an  aid  to  sanitary 
science  was  made  apparent  recently  in  a  study  of 
rural  and  municipal  death-rates  in  several  States 
where  records  happen  to  be  fairly  well  kept.  As  is 


144       Outlines  of  Practical  Sanitation 

well  known,  the  general  death-rate  in  all  civilized 
communities  has  been  steadily  decreasing  during  the 
last  century,  but  in  the  States  where  the  obser- 
vations were  made  it  was  shown  that  the  decline 
had  been  most  marked  in  the  city  districts.  In 
Connecticut,  in  the  city  districts  (that  is,  towns  of 
5000  population  and  over)  the  death-rates  had 
dropped  during  the  last  ten  years  from  20  to  17 
per  1000,  but  in  the  rural  districts  from  17  to  16.  In 
Massachusetts  the  urban  rate  had  dropped  from 
19  to  17,  but  the  rural  only  from  17.2  to  17.1.  In 
New  York  the  urban  dropped  from  23  to  21,  but  the 
rural  had  actually  increased  from  13  to  15  per  1000. 

From  these  records  it  is  apparent  that  there  is 
something  wrong  in  some  of  the  country  districts, 
either  in  the  means  of  preventing  or  in  the  methods 
of  treating  diseases.  If  we  had  a  complete  record  of 
the  diseases  we  could  likely  tell  at  a  glance  where 
the  trouble  lay. 

It  has  happened  that  in  the  final  summing  up  of 
statistics  the  death-rate  of  particular  diseases,  notably 
typhoid  fever,  has  been  accepted  as  the  criterion  of 
the  sanitary  improvement  that  is  being  made.  This 
seems  to  the  author  to  be  a  serious  mistake,  for 
the  death-rate  of  any  disease  is  a  very  changeable 
factor,  due  rather  to  better  treatment  than  to  better 
sanitation;  especially  has  this  been  true  in  regard 
to  typhoid  fever,  consequently,  while  the  amount  of 
typhoid  fever  in  a  place  might  be  as  great  as  ever, 
the  death-rate  might  be,  as  it  is,  gradually  lessening, 


Vital  Statistics 


145 


and  this  improvement  should  certainly  not  be  credited 
to  the  side  of  sanitary  progress. 

I  have  arranged  the  following  tables  in  order  to 
show  the  great  variation  that  may  sometimes  occur 
between  the  typhoid  sick-rate  and  death-rate. 

RATE  PER  10,000 


Table 

I 

Table 

II 

Death-rate 

Sick-rate 

Death-rate 

Sick-rate 

1.4 

18 

3-° 

IO 

1.4 

3 

3.0 

20 

1.4 

7 

3-° 

35 

3-o 

7 

Table 

III 

Table 

IV 

Death-rate 

Sick-rate 

Death-rate 

Sick-rate 

5-° 

5 

10 

50 

5-o 

45 

IO 

100 

Table  V 


Death-rate 

18.0 
18.0 


Sick-rate 

2OO 

42 


Take,  for  example,  a  city  which  has  a  death-rate 
of  only  1.4  per  10,000;  all  sanitarians  would  judge 
this  to  be  a  place  supplied  with  fair  drinking  water, 
yet  one  of  these  cities,  as  is  shown  by  Table  I,  might 
have  just  six  times  as  much  typhoid  fever  as  the 
other.  Now  take  a  city  where  the  death-rate  is  5: 
this  would  be  considered  to  be  in  poor  sanitary  con- 
dition, yet  if  its  sick-rate  is  only  5  it  is  in  vastly 
better  condition  than  the  city  with  the  lower  death- 
rate  of  1.4  and  a  sick-rate  of  18.  By  referring  to 


1 46       Outlines  of  Practical  Sanitation 

the  tables  many  such  discrepancies  will  be  seen; 
for  instance  in  Table  III,  although  the  death-rates 
are  the  same,  the  real  difference  in  the  amount  of 
typhoid  is  40  cases  per  10,000,  and  in  Table  V,  with 
the  death-rate  of  18,  one  city  had  five  times  as  much 
typhoid  as  the  other,  and  one  of  them  had  even  less 
than  a  city  with  the  much  lower  death-rate  of  5. 

With  such  and  even  greater  differences  occurring 
in  actual  records,  it  must  be  evident  that  the  death- 
rate  cannot  have  the  same  relative  sanitary  import- 
ance as  the  sick -rate;  the  death-rate  stands  for  the 
treatment  and  the  character  of  the  disease,  while  the 
number  sick  is  the  real  point  with  the  sanitarian. 
Of  what  value  as  an  indicator  of  sanitary  gain  would 
be  the  death-rate  of  diphtheria  to-day  compared  with 
what  is  was  twenty  years  ago?  As  an  indicator  of 
improved  treatment  it  would  be,  however,  of  immense 
value. 


CHAPTER  X 
Municipal  Sanitation 

HISTORY 

UNICIPAL  sanitation  is  not  of  very  ancient 
origin;  although  as  soon  as  men  banded 
together  into  towns,  they  discovered  that 
certain  precautions  had  to  be  taken  for 
the  preservation  of  their  health;  these  means  did  not 
come  under  communal  direction  but  were  generally 
limited  to  each  man  taking  care  of  himself,  as  is 
done  to-day  in  the  small  village.  By  and  by  the  first 
steps  in  municipal  organization  were  instituted,  which 
consisted  only  in  getting  a  public  water-supply  and 
some  method  of  waste  disposal — crude,  although  very 
crude  were  the  methods  in  use. 

While  Greek  and  Roman  cities  were  being  adorned 
with  those  magnificent  palaces  and  temples  of  marble, 
the  ruins  of  which  still  excite  our  admiration,  the 
very  streets  by  the  side  of  these  buildings  were  so 
filthy  that  on  a  hot  day  the  stench  was  almost  unbear- 
able, so  a  contemporary  writer  states.  Later,  in  the 
Middle  Ages,  the  little  progress  that  had  been  made 

147 


148       Outlines  of  Practical  Sanitation 

was  forgotten,  and  sanitation,  like  everything  else 
good  and  wise,  was  hidden  away  in  the  monkish 
cloisters  of  Europe.  Stables  and  houses  were  close 
together  and  human  filth  was  simply  thrown  into  the 
street,  presumably  to  be  removed  by  a  scavenger. 
Pestilence  after  pestilence  swept  over  the  land,  and 
in  1348  Venice  appointed  three  public  health  officers 
and  attempted  municipal  direction  of  public  health, 
for  the  first  time  in  the  world's  history. 

Henceforth,  a  better  condition  of  affairs  began  to 
exist,  although  improvement  was  slow,  very  slow. 
Here  is  a  little  note  which  has  come  down  to  us  about 
Str  at  ford-on- A  von  in  the  sixteenth  century:  "The 
streets  were  full  of  evil-smelling  pools,  in  which  pigs 
and  geese  freely  disported  themselves,  and  dung- 
hills skirted  the  highway.  The  first  thing  we  learn 
about  Shakespeare's  father  is  that  in  April,  1552,  he 
was  fined  twelvepence  for  having  formed  a  great 
midden  outside  his  house  in  Henley  Street — a  cir- 
cumstance which,  on  the  one  hand,  proves  that  he 
kept  sheep  and  cattle,  and,  on  the  other,  indicates 
his  scant  care  for  cleanliness,  since  the  common  dung- 
hill lay  only  a  stone's  throw  from  his  house.  Again,  in 
1558,  he,  along  with  some  other  citizens,  is  fined 
fourpence  for  the  same  misdemeanor." 

In  London  a  hundred  years  later  much  the  same 
condition  existed.  Macaulay  says:  "Saint  James's 
Square  was  a  receptacle  for  all  the  offal  and  cinders, 
for  all  dead  cats  and  dead  dogs  of  Westminster.  At 
one  time  an  impudent  squatter  settled  himself  there, 


Municipal  Sanitation  149 

and  built  a  shed  for  rubbish  under  the  windows  of 
the  gilded  saloons  in  which  the  first  magnates  of  the 
realm — Norfolk,  Ormond,  Kent,  and  Pembroke — gave 
banquets  and  balls.  It  was  not  till  these  nuisances 
had  lasted  through  a  whole  generation,  and  till  much 
had  been  written  about  them,  that  the  inhabitants 
applied  to  Parliament  for  permission  to  plant  trees. 

"  When  such  was  the  state  of  the  region  inhabited 
by  the  most  luxurious  portion  of  society,  we  may 
easily  believe  that  the  great  body  of  the  population 
suffered  what  would  now  be  considered  insupportable 
grievances.  The  pavement  was  detestable,  and  the 
drainage  was  so  bad  that  in  rainy  weather  the  gutters 
soon  became  torrents.  Several  facetious  poets  have 
commemorated  the  fury  with  which  these  black 
rivulets  roared  down  Snow  Hill  and  Ludgate  Hill, 
bearing  to  Fleet  Ditch  a  vast  tribute  of  animal  and 
vegetable  filth  from  the  stalls  of  butchers  and  green- 
grocers." 

Gradually,  as  the  knowledge  of  better  means  of 
preventing  disease  spread  abroad,  greater  demands 
were  made  on  municipalities,  and  municipal  sanita- 
tion developed  and  enlarged  into  the  position  it  holds 
to-day.  Filthy  water,  dirty  streets,  crime-lurking  and 
pest-breeding  tenements  are  no  longer  tolerated;  food- 
and  milk-supply,  supervision  of  schools  and  transpor- 
tation lines,  the  proper  construction  of  buildings  and 
the  collection  of  vital  statistics  also  come,  or  should 
come,  under  municipal  supervision;  in  fact,  in  the 
larger  cities,  the  sanitary  authorities  generally  are* 


150       Outlines  of  Practical  Sanitation 

and  rightly  should  be,  clothed  with  the  power  to  use 
almost  any  means  to  preserve  the  public  health.  All 
of  these  subjects  have  been  discussed  in  the  foregoing 
chapters,  and  a  few  remaining,  perhaps  minor  ones, 
are  treated  in  the  following: 


OVERCROWDING 

Crowding,  that  is,  overcrowding,  is  one  of  the  sani- 
tary defects  which  seems  inevitable  in  the  rapidly 
growing  cities  of  the  present — although  it  is  not  a 
thing  alone  of  the  present.  As  far  back  as  the 
times  of  Charles  I.  we  find  a  law  prohibiting  "the 
subdivision  of  any  building  into  tenements  .  .  .  and 
the  receiving  of  more  families  than  one  into  a  single 
building."  The  scarcer  and  dearer  the  land  the 
higher  go  the  buildings,  until  some  city  streets  are 
practically  tunnels  with  the  roof  left  off.  Such  a  con- 
dition, when  the  streets  are  narrow,  keeps  out  sun- 
light from  many  rooms  the  greater  part  of  the  day 
and  favors  dampness. 

Of  course,  high  buildings,  in  a  business  section  like 
lower  Broadway,  where  the  rooms  are  only  occupied 
for  office  purposes,  probably  do  not  have  any  far- 
reaching  effect;  at  least  nothing  in  proportion  to  the 
harm  done  when  such  buildings  are  used  for  continual 
residence.  This  crowding  has  reached  its  pinnacle 
on  Manhattan  Island,  where  in  one  section  on  the 
East  Side  nearly  2000  persons  dwell  on  a  single 
acre — the  thickest,  blackest  mass  of  humanity  in  the 


Municipal  Sanitation  151 

whole  world;  and  the  death-rate  is  simply  appalling, 
especially  among  the  infants  during  a  hot  summer; 
even  if  the  tenement  child  does  survive  his  infant 
days,  he  has  still  a  battle  to  fight  for  life,  for  tuber- 
culosis is  the  dread  monster  that  saps  the  strength 
of  the  overcrowded.  Other  diseases  fall  into  insig- 
nificance when  compared  to  the  Great  White  Plague; 
indeed  it  is  claimed  by  some  authorities  that  fully 
one-half  of  the  whole  tenement  population  of  New 
York  is  more  or  less  tubercular,  and  every  other 
city  where  similar  conditions  exist  may  expect  similar 
results. 

Here  is  a  little  record  taken  from  "The  Battle 
with  the  Slum,"  by  Jacob  A.  Riis,  which  shows  the 
terrible  conditions  brought  on  by  overcrowding, 
and  is  well  worth  the  reading  to  every  sanitarian 
and  public-spirited  citizen.  "Twenty  cases  of  typhoid 
fever  from  a  single  house  in  one  year  was  the  record 
that  had  gone  unconsidered.  Bedrooms  in  tenements 
were  dark  closets,  literally  without  ventilation.  There 
couldn't  be  any.  The  houses  were  built  like  huge, 
square  boxes,  covering  nearly  the  whole  of  the  lot. 
Some  light  came  in  at  the  ends,  but  the  middle  was 
always  black. 

"Forty  thousand  windows,  cut  by  order  of  the 
Health  Board  that  first  year,  gave  us  a  daylight  view 
of  the  slum — 'damp  and  rotten  and  dark,  walls 
and  banisters  sticky  with  constant  moisture/ 
Think  of  living  babies  in  such  hell-holes  and  make 
a  note  of  it,  you  in  the  young  cities  who  can  still 


152       Outlines  of  Practical  Sanitation 

head  off  the  slums  where  we  have  to  wrestle  with  it 
for  our  sins! 

"  Put  a  brand  upon  the  murderer  who  would  smother 
babies  in  dark  holes  and  bedrooms!  He  is  nothing 
else.  Forbid  the  putting  up  of  a  house  five  stories 
high,  or  six,  on  a  twenty-five-foot  lot,  unless  at  least 
thirty-five  per  cent  of  the  lot  be  reserved  for  sun- 
light and  air.  Forbid  it  absolutely,  if  you  can.  It 
is  the  devil's  job,  and  you  will  have  to  pay  his  dues 
in  the  end,  depend  on  it." 

All  municipalities  should  carefully  note  the  first 
symptom  of  the  disease  of  overcrowding,  for  it  creeps 
on  gradually,  very  gradually,  and  prevention  is  vastly 
better  than  cure.  The  height  of  all  buildings  should 
be  strictly  limited,  depending,  of  course,  on  the  width 
of  the  street  and  the  size  of  the  lot.  Some  cities 
have  regulations  permitting  the  height  to  equal  one 
and  one-half  times  the  width  of  the  street;  perhaps 
that  is  about  right.  Equally  important  is  it  that 
sufficient  room  be  left  on  every  lot  for  air-space.  On 
a  corner-lot  something  like  twenty-five  per  cent  should 
be  reserved  for  this  purpose,  and  on  an  inside  lot 
probably  forty  per  cent  should  be  left  unoccupied. 
The  tendency  to  occupy  the  greater  part  of  a  lot 
with  a  building  in  a  residence  district  is  an  early 
symptom  of  overcrowding;  when  the  rear  tenement 
goes  up  the  disease  is  thoroughly  developed  and 
needs  active  treatment. 

The  plan  and  form  of  tenements  are  not  within 
the  scope  of  this  work,  yet  suffice  it  to  say  that 


Municipal  Sanitation  153 

every  room  should  have  plenty  of  light — sunlight — 
and  the  number  of  people  per  building  should  be 
limited.  The  question  of  baths  in  tenements  is  yet 
open.  Tubs  are  not  very  satisfactory,  it  is  likely 
that  some  form  of  shower-bath  would  be  much  better. 

Tenements  have  been  recently  built  in  New  York 
and  Brooklyn  especially,  which  conform  to  all  sani- 
tary requirements,  and  are  models  of  their  kind; 
six  stories  high  and  of  brick,  with  hallways  "airy 
and  sunshiny,"  and  divided  into  two-,  three-,  and 
four-room  apartments,  the  entire  building  being  as 
fireproof  as  modern  science  can  make  it. 

The  apartments  are  heated  by  steam,  and  hot 
water  is  furnished  all  the  year  round  from  a  central 
boiler-room.  In  all  the  kitchens  there  are  gas-ranges, 
and  the  average  fuel  and  light  bill  has  been  less  than 
three  dollars  per  month.  In  the  basement  there  are 
free  shower-  and  tub-baths  and  each  suite  of  rooms 
has  a  private  toilet.  There  are  no  rooms  without 
windows  and  there  is  a  dust-chute  on  every  floor. 
The  cleanliness  of  these  buildings  show  a  marked 
contrast  to  the  old  tenement  and  the  cheapness  of 
the  rent  put  them  in  the  way  of  the  poorer  class,  the 
very  class  for  which  they  were  intended,  and  the 
strangest  thing  of  all  is  that,  although  they  were 
not  built  with  the  idea  of  profit,  they  are  paying 
four  per  cent  on  the  investment. 

In  all  our  work  of  municipal  and  sanitary  reform 
we  are  apt  to  forget  that  the  alleys  and  the  tene- 
ments are  more  needful  of  attention  for  the  public 


1 54       Outlines  of  Practical  Sanitation 

health  than  the  avenues  and  the  brownstone  fronts. 
The  following  lines,  written  by  an  unknown  poet, 
have  a  meaning  that  is  worthy  some  thought: 

"From  slums,  where  foul  diseases  hide, 
The  free  wind  travels  far  and  wide, 

"The  rich  man,  living  on  the  square, 
Throws  wide  his  windows  for  the  air, 

"His  petted  child  with  every  breath 
Drinks  in  the  viewless  seeds  of  death. 

"The  rich  man  loaded  down  with  his  woe 
Wonders  why  God  should  send  the  blow. 

"The  pastor  wonders,  too,  and  prays 
And  talks  of  God's  mysterious  ways. 

"But  know,  O  man  of  high  estate, 
You're  bound  up  with  the  poor  man's  fate, 

"The  winds  that  enter  at  your  door 
Have  crept  across  his  attic  floor. 

"If  you  would  have  'all  well'  with  you 
Then  you  must  seek  his  welfare  too. 

"If  even  selfishness  were  wise, 
It  would  no  other  life  despise." 

STREET  CLEANING 

Another  factor  in  municipal  sanitary  housekeeping 
is  street  cleaning.  In  the  Middle  Ages  and  even 
later,  as  mentioned  previously,  the  public  streets  were 
the  receptacles  for  all  sorts  of  filth  and  waste.  For 
example,  one  of  the  city  ordinances  of  Muhlberg,  in 
1367,  ordered  that  manure  deposited  by  householders 


Municipal  Sanitation  155 

on  the  market-place  must  not  be  allowed  to  remain 
longer  than  fourteen  days — a  record,  though  small, 
which  tells  a  pretty  big  tale. 

In  all  the  larger  cities  the  public  now  demand 
clean  streets  as  one  of  the  requirements  of  health. 
The  late  Col.  Waring,  during  his  administration  in 
New  York,  used  to  point  to  the  improved  health 
statistics  as  an  evidence  of  the  value  of  clean  streets; 
such  statistics  are  slightly  misleading,  for  during 
this  period  there  was  likewise  renewed  activity  on 
all  lines  of  health  administration;  however,  no  one 
doubts  but  that  clean  streets  are  an  important  item 
in  municipal  health,  for  streets,  dirty  and  filthy  with 
dust,  wafted  hither  and  thither  with  every  wind, 
cause  various  eye,  throat,  and  bronchial  diseases; 
and  streets  wet  and  slushy  with  snow  and  ice  cause 
wet  feet  and  the  consequent  colds  and  pneumonic 
troubles.  Then,  again,  clean  streets  tend  to  make 
clean  back  yards,  for  each  and  every  step  in  progress 
helps  on  to  a  next. 

In  street  cleaning  the  principal  points  are  the 
sweeping,  scraping,  and  flushing  of  the  streets,  the 
removal  of  snow,  and  the  prevention  of  the  scattering 
of  household  rubbish  and  ashes.  Col.  Waring  brought 
street  cleaning  in  this  country  up  to  a  standard 
hitherto  unattained;  his  method,  described  by  him- 
self, was  somewhat  as  follows:  "Each  sweeper,  clad 
in  white  duck,  is  supplied  with  a  little  two-wheeled 
truck  which  supports  an  open  bag  or  can  to  receive 
sweepings  (Fig.  35).  On  this  truck  he  transports  his 


156       Outlines  of  Practical  Sanitation 

tools:  a  broom  with  a  scraper  at  the  back,  a  water- 
ing-can, a  short  shovel  (or  a  shovel-like  arrangement 
fastened  to  the  truck),  and  for  asphalt,  a  broad,  long- 
handled  scraper.  The  sweepings  are  put  in  the  bag 
(or  can)  as  fast  as  collected.  When  full,  the  bag  is 
tied  and  placed  on  the  curb. 

"  Householders  are  allowed  to  put  nothing  on  the 
sidewalk.     All    receptacles    must    stand    within    the 


FIG.  35. — A  Sweeper  at  Work.      (From  McClure's  Magazine.) 

'stoop-line.'  Garbage  is  kept  separate,  and  is  set 
out  in  a  proper  vessel  within  half  an  hour  of  the 
scheduled  arrival  of  the  cart  on  its  early-morning 
rounds.  Ashes  are  kept  within  the  house  in  cans, 
from  which  they  are  transferred  to  bags  by  a  depart- 
ment man.  These  bags  are  tied  and  set  on  the  curb 
to  be  taken  away  by  the  cart  that  collects  the  bags 
of  sweepings." 


Municipal  Sanitation  157 

By  this  method  Col.  Waring  cleaned  the  streets  of 
New  York  better  than  they  had  ever  been  cleaned 
before,  but  this  was  not  all;  the  greatest  thing  prob- 
ably was,  according  to  Col.  Waring  himself,  that  "a 
man  instead  of  a  voter  had  been  put  at  the  other 
end  of  the  broom-handle." 

For  snow  removal  the  only  effective  method  is  man, 
shovel,  and  cart;  the  cost  depends  on  the  price  of 
local  labor  and  is  always  expensive,  but  snow  removal 
is  very  desirable,  especially  in  climates  where  there 
is  much  thawing  and  freezing. 

PUBLIC  BATHS 

The  introduction  of  baths  for  public  use  is  an  old 
institution,  and  valuable  from  the  point  of  sanita- 
tion and  morality,  for  there  can  be  no  question  but 
that  "cleanliness  is  next  to  godliness."  Municipali- 
ties are  beginning  to  recognize  these  facts,  and  public 
baths  are  becoming  more  and  more  a  popular  insti- 
tution. In  the  great  cities  where  ninety  to  ninety- 
nine  per  cent  of  the  poorer  classes  have  no  bathing 
facilities,  the  public  bath  becomes  a  real  sanitary 
necessity. 

We  all  know  the  story  of  the  Roman  baths — inter- 
esting and  instructive  it  is — how,  although  instituted 
at  first  for  the  poor  and  the  public,  they  soon  degen- 
erated into  lounging-places  for  the  luxurious  and 
indolent  nobility,  who,  with  enervated  and  clouded 
brain,  forgot  that  they  lived  in  a  work-day  world. 


158       Outlines  of  Practical  Sanitation 

In  the  "Last  Days  of  Pompeii"  Lord  Lytton  gives 
a  splendid  description  of  the  bath  during  the  period 
of  Roman  greatness.  "By  Hercules!"  said  Diomed, 
opening  his  eyes,  "Why  it  would  take  a  man's  whole 
life  to  bathe."  "At  Rome,  it  often  does,"  replied 
Galucus,  gravely.  "There  are  many  who  live  only 
at  the  baths.  They  repair  there  the  first  hour  in 
which  the  doors  are  opened,  and  remain  until  that 
in  which  the  doors  are  closed.  They  seem  as  if  they 
knew  nothing  of  the  rest  of  Rome,  as  if  they  despised 
all  other  existence." 

"By  Pollux!  you  amaze  me.  ...  Even  those  who 
bathe  only  thrice  a  day  contrive  to  consume  their 
lives  in  this  occupation." 

The  "only"  is  the  meaningful  word  in  this  sentence, 
for  it  is  recorded  that  many  bathed  habitually  seven 
times  a  day.  Here  is  plainly  a  case  of  mistaking  the 
means  for  the  end,  and  the  trouble  was  not  with  the 
bath  but  with  the  people;  it  will  indeed  be  well  for 
modern  cities  to  study  the  story  of  this  Roman  mis- 
take. 

There  is  no  need  to  have  costly  marble  palaces 
for  public  baths;  durability  is  the  needful  thing  in 
the  building,  and  a  speedy  method  for  bathing,  a 
thorough  and  speedy  removal  of  the  soiled  water, 
are  the  needful  things  in  the  bathing  arrangements; 
and  this  seems  to  be  accomplished  more  readily  by 
the  rain-  or  shower-bath  than  by  any  other  means. 

A  rain-bath  takes  "only  about  one-tenth  of  the 
water  and  is  vastly  more  cleanly.  In  a  space  68  X  25 


Municipal  Sanitation 


159 


feet  there  have  been  placed  facilities  for  bathing  by 
rain-bath,  400  persons  daily.  To  construct  even  a 
pool  to  bathe  this  many  people  would  require  one 
hundred  times  the  space. 


FIG.  36. — Section  of  a  Rain-bath.     (From  the  "Sanitarian.") 

Fig.  36  shows  the  working  of  the  rain-bath:  the 
applicant  first  turns  "on  the  water,  soaps  himself 
thoroughly,  then  again  turns  on  the  shower,  and  in 
five  or  six  minutes  is  as  clean,  as  soap  and  water  can 
make  him.  By  this  method  of  bathing,  cleanliness 
of  the  bathoom  is  more  easily  attained,  and  the 


160       Outlines  of  Practical  Sanitation 

danger  of  transmitting   contagious   diseases   reduced 
to  a  minimum  or  rather  abolished — a  real  danger  in 
public  tub-bathing  unless  the  utmost  care  is  observed 
and  a  great  amount  of  labor  expended. 
I 

PUBLIC  PARKS  AND  PLAYGROUNDS 

Public  parks  and  playgrounds  for  the  city  is  another 
sanitary  benefit  quite  often  overlooked  by  the  city 
"fathers,"  especially  in  rapidly  growing  cities.  Parks 
bring  the  freshness  of  the  country,  the  fields  and  the 
woods,  to  the  overcivilized  denizens  of  the  crowded 
districts,  breathing-spots  to  the  thousands  who  are 
cooped  up  amid  endless  walls  of  brick  and  mortar. 
Recreation  and  relaxation  are  just  as  necessary  to  a 
healthy  life  as  food  and  drink;  good,  healthy  out- 
door life  for  children  makes  better  men  and  women, 
better  able  to  meet  and  to  overcome  the  labor  and 
exactions  of  adult  life. 

Any  one  who  has  seen  Central  Park  on  an  afternoon 
when  the  green  stretches  are  "common,"  when 
hundreds  of  children  are  romping  and  playing  and 
picnicing  with  their  parents  and  elders,  must  realize 
that  the  greatest  good  that  a  great  city  can  dc  for 
its  people  has  here  been  done. 

William  the  Conquerer  tearing  down  villages  to 
make  hunting-parks  for  Norman  nobles  is  rightly 
maligned  by  his  contemporaries.  A  thousand  years 
later  we  tear  down  city  blocks  to  make  parks  and 
playgrounds,  not  for  a  ruling  class  but  rather  for 


Municipal  Sanitation  161 

the   unprivileged   mass;     better   still  we   should   say 
for  the  good  of  all — so  much  has  humanity  progressed. 

After  considerable  study  experts  have  decided  that 
about  one-twentieth  of  a  city's  area  should  be  re- 
served for  parks  and  squares.  That  young  cities 
should  see  to  this  in  time  and  set  apart  sufficient 
space  is  only  an  evidence  of  economy.  Mulberry 
Bend  Park,  and  it  doesn't  seem  much  of  a  park  to 
the  rural  visitor,  nevertheless  cost  New  York  over 
$2,000,000;  neglected  sanitation  sometimes  conies 
high. 

In  one  of  the  larger  towns  of  Central  Pennsylvania 
this  taking  time  by  the  forelock  has  been  done.  On 
the  borders  of  this  city  there  are  400  acres  of  waste 
land,  of  swamp  and  meadow  and  hillside,  covered 
with  trees  and  grass  and  flowers.  A  real  natural 
park  sculptured  out  and  filled  up  by  an  ancient  river — 
a  park  without  the  aid  of  the  landscape-gardener. 
After  considerable  agitation  this  city  has  taken  means 
to  appropriate  this  as  a  public  park — probably  the 
wisest  and  most  far-sighted  policy  ever  displayed  by 
any  city. 

THE  SMOKE  NUISANCE 

The  smoke  question  is  beginning  to  be  agitated  in 
almost  all  cities,  not  perhaps  so  much  on  account  of 
the  sanitary  as  the  aesthetic  side.  But  it  has  a  sani- 
tary side,  too,  for  the  black,  heavy  smoke,  especially 
resulting  from  soft-coal  combustion,  composed  of 


162       Outlines  of  Practical  Sanitation 

particles  of  carbon,  hanging  like  a  black  cloud  over 
many  a  city,  blots  out  sunshine  and  light;  not  only 
this,  but  carbon  particles  in  the  atmosphere  help  to 
make  fogs,  and  fog  and  smoke  together  is  still  worse 
It  has  been  calculated  that  some  of  the  large  cities 
lose  about  one-sixth  of  their  sunshine  from  this 
cause  and  about  an  equal  amount  of  light;  this  for 
summer.  In  winter  the  loss  is  estimated  at  fully 
one-half,  and  no  one  will  deny  but  that  the  loss  of 
sunlight — of  so  much  sunlight — is  an  insanitary  con- 
dition. 

A  great  part  of  the  smoke  is  due  to  domestic  fires, 
that  is  when  soft  coal  is  burned  exclusively;  each 
house,  it  is  estimated,  pours  out  something  like  five 
tons  of  smoky  air  every  day.  In  other  places  where 
soft  coal  is  only  used  for  factories  the  domestic  fire 
does  not  enter  into  the  calculation.  In  Fig.  37  is 
shown  a  photograph  of  a  city  of  this  kind:  the  heavy 
cloud  of  smoke  from  the  factories  in  the  east  end 
of  the  city,  forming  a  dark  background  for  the  build- 
ing in  white,  helps  to  make  a  fine  photograph,  but 
a  dirty  city. 

The  atmosphere,  by  the  way,  does  not  annihilate 
or  consume  the  smoke  or  render  it  harmless,  as  it 
does  disease-germs;  it  simply  carries  it  from  one 
place  to  another  and  then  drops  it  earthward.  In 
some  cities  which  happen  to  be  great  railroad  centres 
the  contributions  from  this  source  are  enormous,  and 
in  most  of  our  large  cities  the  smoke  problem  has 
risen  to  such  a  point  that  it  calls  for  repressive 


Municipal  Sanitation  165 

measures.  The  whole  subject,  however,  is  simply  a 
matter  of  legislation,  since  smoke-consuming  devices 
are  able  to  give  us  a  smokeless  chimney. 

The  rapid  advance  of  electrical  power  generated 
by  water  is  beginning  to  be  felt  in  certain  favored 
places  and  the  chimneyless  factory  is  one  of  the  hopes 
of  the  future. 


THE  SPITTING  NUISANCE 

The  habit  of  public  spitting  on  the  sidewalks, 
street-cars,  etc.,  has  gotten  to  be  not  only  a  public 
nuisance,  but  a  real  menace  to  the  public  health, 
especially  when  it  happens  that  a  person  with  tuber- 
culosis may  be  doing  the  spitting.  Dried  tubercu- 
losis sputum  retains  its  vitality  for  many  months  in 
favorable  places  and  is  not  affected  by  cold,  so  that  cold, 
damp,  and  dark  rooms  and  unclean  cars,  once  infected, 
may  remain  a  source  of  danger  to  future  occupants. 
Such  sputum  dried  on  the  street,  carried  everywhere 
by  the  winds,  becomes  a  menace  to  every  one.  A 
good  many  cities  have  laws  against  public  spitting, 
and  there  seems  to  be  no  reason  why  anti-spitting 
laws  should  not  be  enforced,  although  it  is  likely 
that  the  education  of  the  public  to  the  dangers  arising 
from  this  cause  would  have  a  greater  and  more  far- 
reaching  effect. 


CHAPTER  XI 
Rural  and  Suburban  Sanitation 

GENERAL  CONSIDERATIONS 

URAL  sanitation  differs  radically  from 
municipal  sanitation  in  that,  in  a  city, 
the  municipality  assumes  charge  of,  and 
responsibility  for,  almost  all  sanitary  con- 
ditions, while  in  the  country,  for  the  most  part,  the 
individual  is  himself  responsible  for  the  sanitary  or 
insanitary  conditions  surrounding  his  residence;  it 
rests  with  him  alone,  very  often,  whether  typhoid 
fever  or  some  other  preventable  disease  shall  invade 
his  home. 

Rural  hygiene  never  received  very  much  attention, 
for  the  country  was  always  considered  a  healthy 
place;  in  the  years  gone  by,  when  cities  were  in  the 
plight  described  in  a  former  chapter,  the  country 
then  was,  in  comparison,  a  very  healthy  place;  thinly 
settled,  watered  by  wholesome  springs,  and  covered 
with  a  virgin  soil  which  rapidly  disposed  of  all  organic 
waste,  it  was  indeed  pure  and  sanitary.  With  the 
increase  of  population — and  it  is  the  same  in  all 

1 66 


Rural  and  Suburban  Sanitation        167 

lands  and  all  times — as  generation  after  generation 
resided  in  the  same  place,  the  soil  surrounding  such 
habitations  became  polluted  and  overburdened  with 
organic  filth;  springs  and  wells  became  polluted  and 
finally  infected,  and  the  isolated  country-place,  orig- 
inally healthy,  became  scourged  with  disease. 

While  the  cities  have  been  making  wonderful  sani- 
tary progress  in  recent  years,  the  country  has  still 
kept  to  its  old-fashioned  ways,  trusting  in  Providence 
and  the  "Old  Oaken  Bucket";  the  sanitary  aspect 
of  many  a  village  to-day  is  the  exact  counterpart  of 
many  a  town  or  city  in  the  days  of  Shakespeare.  Con- 
sequently, as  a  result  of  this  rural  neglect  born  of 
conservatism,  the  healthfulness  of  these  localities  is 
not  what  it  should  be.  As  was  shown  in  a  former 
chapter,  the  general  death-rate  has  not  been  lowered 
in  many  rural  districts  in  the  same  proportion  that 
has  taken  place  in  the  urban  districts,  and  it  is  evi- 
dent that  much  more  attention  should  be  paid  to 
the  sanitation  of  these  outlying  districts,  not  only 
for  their  own  sake  but  also  for  the  advantage  reaped 
by  the  adjoining  municipalities,  and  eventually  by 
the  whole  state. 

DWELLINGS 

First  in  importance  in  the  country  as  in  the  city 
is  the  question  of  dwelling;  in  the  city  the  construc- 
tion of  buildings  is  under  the  rules  and  regulations 
of  the  city  government,  which  make  it  possible  for 


1 68       Outlines  of  Practical  Sanitation 

all  buildings  to  conform  to  a  certain  standard.  The 
city  dweller  buys  a  lot  and  builds  thereon  his  house, 
facing  the  street  whether  it  is  east  or  west,  north  or 
south;  over  the  surrounding  buildings  he  has  no  con- 
trol— they  may  overtop  his  and  keep  out  the  sun, 
and  they  may  prevent  him  from  having  a  fine  view 
across  a  neighboring  river  or  lake,  but  for  this  there 
is  no  remedy;  he  must  confine  himself  to  his  own 
narrow  lot. 

In  the  country  and  suburbs  it  is  different,  and  the 
prospective  builder  may  choose  a  site  that  conforms 
more  to  sanitary  requirements  and  individual  taste; 
he  may  have  a  lot  large  enough  for  the  sun  to  shine 
into  the  house  during  the  whole  day.  He  may  build 
on  a  hill  or  he  may  build  in  the  valley.  When  it 
comes  to  the  house-building  proper  one  is  not  bound 
by  any  rules,  but  if  he  wishes  a  dwelling  that  is  to  be 
healthy  it  is  necessary  to  follow  sanitary  principles; 
and  there  are  three  things:  ground-moisture,  ground- 
water,  and  ground-air  which  must  be  considered 
before  a  stone  is  laid. 

The  ground-moisture  is  that  moisture  in  the  upper 
layers  of  the  soil,  derived  from  the  ground-water 
below  by  capillary  attraction,  and  from  the  perco- 
lation of  surface-waters  from  above.  As  the  amount 
of  moisture  is  directly  proportional  to  the  absorptive 
power  of  the  soil,  it  is  evident  that  by  increasing  the 
permeability  of  the  soil,  we  can  diminish  this  damp- 
ness; to  do  this  in  any  given  place  we  fill  trenches 
with  broken  stone,  or  we  lay  drain- tiles;  the  water 


Rural  and  Suburban  Sanitation        169 

percolating  through  the  soil  will  collect  in  these  drains 
and  flow  off,  and  the  soil  will  become  dry. 

This  dampness  of  the  soil,  especially  when  excessive, 
is  no  doubt  a  factor  in  certain  diseases;  the  prevalence 
of  rheumatic  complaints  in  rural  localities  is  a  well- 
known  fact,  strikingly  different  from  its  occurrence 
in  a  well-drained  city.  There  seems  to  be  a  relation, 
too,  between  dampness  and  phthisis;  according  to 
the  English  sanitarians  there  has  been  a  great  lower- 
ing of  the  mortality  from  this  disease  following  sub- 
soil drainage  in  certain  districts.  The  elimination  of 
malaria,  which  always  follows  improved  drainage,  we 
now  know  to  be  due  to  the  destruction  of  the  breed- 
ing-places of  the  mosquito.  Diphtheria,  too,  seems 
to  spread  much  more  rapidly  in  houses  with  dark, 
damp  cellars. 

Ground-water,  another  soil  factor  of  considerable 
interest,  is  that  underground  sheet  of  water  which 
completely  fills  all  the  interstices  of  the  soil;  its  height 
is  readily  told  by  the  height  of  the  water  in  the  neigh- 
boring wells.  This  sheet  of  ground-water  is  in  con- 
stant motion  to  the  nearest  watercourse  and  cannot 
usually  be  lowered  except  by  lowering  the  adjoining 
streams;  but,  unless  the  ground-water  is  very  near 
the  surface,  it  is  not  of  very  much  consequence  to  the 
house-builder,  except  that  it  furnishes  some  moisture 
to  the  upper  layers  of  the  soil.  I  know  of  a  town 
where  the  ground-water  is  generally  twenty-five  or 
thirty  feet  below  the  surface,  yet  almost  every  house 
is  damp  and  unhealthy,  because  faulty  construction 


170       Outlines  of  Practical  Sanitation 

has  permitted  ground-moisture  and  surface-water 
to  enter  the  foundations.  The  relationship  between 
ground-water  and  typhoid  fever,  which  has  been 
shown  to  be  present  in  many  places,  does  not  exist 
in  the  absence  of  wells  or  springs  which  are  used  for 
a  supply  of  drinking  water. 

The  ground-air  is  interesting  to  the  sanitary  house- 
builder  in  two  phases,  namely,  its  composition  and 
movement.  It  is  made  up  partly  of  gases  arising 
from  decomposition  and  putrefaction,  processes  which 
are  continually  going  on  in  the  soil,  especially  in 
that  which  is  contaminated  with  organic  waste; 
and  the  resultant  gases  diffuse  rapidly  through  the 
surrounding  locality.  Carbon  dioxide,  wrhich  is  one 
of  the  gases  formed,  is  always  greater  in  ground-air 
than  in  the  atmosphere,  while  oxygen,  on  the  other 
hand,  is  decreased,  and  nitrogen  remains  about  the 
same.  In  addition  to  these  gases  there  are  certain 
amounts  of  ammonia,  hydrogen,  ammonium  sulphide, 
and  marsh-gas  which  go  to  make  up  ground-air;  thus 
differing  greatly  in  composition  from  the  atmosphere 
it  is  surely  not  suitable  for  breathing  purposes.  In 
addition,  too,  it  may  contain  at  times  certain  disease- 
germs. 

The  second  disturbing  factor  of  the  ground-air — its 
movement — is  of  considerable  importance.  It  has 
been  found  that  the  wind  blowing  against  the  surface- 
soil  sets  this  underground  air  in  motion;  likewise, 
too,  any  change  in  the  ground-water  level  will  occa- 
sion fluctuations  in  the  air  above.  During  a  heavy 


Rural  and  Suburban  Sanitation        171 

rain,  for  example,  the  surface-waters  flowing  down- 
ward upon  the  ground-air  compress  it.  Underneath 
a  dwelling,  if  the  cellar  is  not  properly  protected, 
there  is  an  area  of  diminished  pressure,  and,  conse- 
quently, the  ground-air  pours  into  the  cellar  and 
then  into  the  house  above.  In  winter,  during  heavy 
Irost,  similar  conditions  exist,  when  the  frozen  ground 
is  more  or  less  impervious;  and  then  the  warm, 
unfrozen,  and  porous  part  underneath  the  house 
readily  facilitates  the  ascent  of  the  air  below. 

So  with  the  understanding  of  these  soil  factors — 
ground-water,  ground-air,  and  ground-moisture — we 
try  to  construct  a  foundation  which  will  eliminate 
these  dangers.  In  the  first  place,  the  surrounding 
area  should  be  thoroughly  drained,  unless  it  happens 
to  be  very  dry  from  natural  drainage.  A  trench, 
filled  with  broken  stones  or  laid  with  tiles,  and  having 
an  outlet  in  some  lower  ground,  should  surround  the 
foundation-wall;  the  trench  being  somewhat  deeper 
than  the  bottom  of  the  foundation.  After  the  exca- 
vation has  been  made  the  required  size,  the  bottom 
should  be  laid  with  concrete  (Fig.  i),  and  this  covered 
with  a  layer  of  hot  pitch;  the  walls  should  then  be 
built  upon  this,  and  the  outside  of  the  wall  also 
coated  with  hot  pitch.  The  cellar  floor  may  then 
be  finished  writh  a  coat  of  concrete  or  cement.  A 
foundation  made  in  this  or  some  similar  way  insures 
the  occupants  against  all  trouble  from  the  soil. 

The  direction  to  which  a  house  should  face  will 
depend  on  circumstances,  but  it  should  be  so  arranged, 


172       Outlines  of  Practical  Sanitation 

if  possible,  that  sunlight  can  enter  every  room  some 
time  during  the  day.  The  common  method  of  having 
the  front  of  the  house,  with  its  most  used  and  fre- 
quented rooms  facing  the  road  or  street  in  whatever 
direction  it  may  happen  to  be,  is  bad,  for  it  some- 
times gives  the  least  possible  amount  of  sunshine 
and  light  to  the  principal  rooms  in  the  house.  A 
better  way,  and  one  that  is  generally  feasible,  is  to 
put  the  house  in  such  a  position  that  the  principal 
living-rooms  will  have  a  southerly  exposure,  irre- 
spective of  the  street,  and  then  by  making  a  lawn 
of  the  back  yard  and  planting  shrubbery  it  will  matter 
little  if  the  front  of  the  house  does  face  the  rear  of 
the  lot. 

The  material  of  which  a  house  is  built  is  generally, 
as  indicated  in  Chapter  I,  an  economic  question;  brick 
and  stone,  are,  of  course,  preferable  to  wood,  less 
exposed  to  currents  of  air  and  changes  of  tempera- 
ture, and  in  some  localities  do  not  cost  much  more. 
Just  at  present,  in  most  of  the  Eastern  cities,  brick 
is  as  cheap,  if  not  cheaper,  than  wood,  and,  in  the 
future,  the  increasing  scarcity  of  wood  will  necessitate 
the  use  of  these  other  materials,  or  perhaps  the  use 
of  concrete,  which  is  coming  into  favor.  Brick  and 
stone  houses  are  likely  to  become  damp,  unless  the 
walls  are  double;  that  is,  the  plaster  must  never  be 
put  directly  on  the  wall,  but  an  air-space  must  be 
left  by  "furring"  (as  the  builders  say)  the  lath  away 
from  the  wall  by  strips  of  wood  which  leave  a  small 
interval  between  the  lath  and  wall. 


Rural  and  Suburban  Sanitation        173 

Shade-trees  about  a  country  or  suburban  house 
are  important,  but  the  great  tendency  in  the  country 
is  to  have  the  trees  too  thick  and  close;  in  villages 
and  small  towns  this  fault  is  almost  universal,  on 
account  of  the  narrow  pavement  and  streets.  A  tree 
should  be  no  nearer  the  house  than  fifteen  feet  and 
should  be  trimmed  "high";  cutting  off  the  top,  as 
is  so  often  done,  makes  the  evil  worse  by  growing 
a  denser  shade,  for  every  branch  loped  throws  out 
two  or  three  new  ones.  Nature  always  trims  a  tree 
from  below. 

WATER-SUPPLY 

Another  important  thing  for  the  rural  dweller, 
and  probably  the  most  important,  is  the  question 
of  water-supply;  not  only  important  to  the  perma- 
nent country  dweller  but  even  to  the  occasional  city 
visitor,  for  since  cities  have  improved  their  water- 
supplies,  it  has  been  found  that  the  country  districts 
are  the  remaining  fountainheads  of  typhoid  fever. 
New  York  City,  last  year,  made  the  alarming  dis- 
covery that  twenty-five  per  cent  of  all  its  typhoid 
cases  were  directly  traceable  to  the  country — certain- 
ly alarming  when  we  remember  that  this  city  has 
been  spending  millions  for  pure  water  to  aver,  this 
very  disease.  The  rural  population  is  not  so  insig- 
nificant either,  as  we  are  accustomed  to  think,  for  just 
about  seventy  per  cent  of  the  nation,  varying  from 
twenty  per  cent  in  some  of  the  New  England  States 
to  ninety-five  per  cent  in  some  of  the  Western  States, 


174       Outlines  of  Practical  Sanitation 

live  in  the  country  and  smaller  towns,  where  no 
scientific  forethought  is  given  to  the  subject  of  drink- 
ing water;  in  other  words,  something  like  40,000,000 
of  people  in  the  United  States  simply  use  the  water 
most  available  in  an  economic  way,  ignoring  com- 
pletely the  sanitary  efficiency. 

Although  these  rural  water-supplies  come  from 
many  different  sources — individual  wrells,  springs,  and 
small  streams  scattered  through  the  country — it  has 
been  found  that  they  are  very  similar  in  one  respect, 
namely,  their  utter  unreliability  for  furnishing  a 
suitable  drinking  water.  Whether  in  Canada  or  in 
Florida,  in  Pennsylvania  or  in  California,  this  unfit- 
ness  of  the  rural  drinking  water  is  a  striking  feature. 

Of  the  various  sources  of  rural  supply  the  well 
stands  first  and  foremost;  and  too  much  cannot  be 
said  against  the  ordinary  shallow  well,  especially 
when  in  town  or  village;  the  "town"  pump  is  espe- 
cially to  be  avoided  (Fig.  38).  The  deep-drilled 
well  in  a  good  many  districts  is  no  better  than  the 
shallow  one;  in  fact,  I  have  known  a  deep  well — the 
deepest  in  a  small  town — which  \vas  the  most  polluted 
in  the  whole  locality,  for  the  simple  reason  that  it 
pierced  a  region  of  loose  shale  which  facilitated  drain- 
age, and  where,  in  consequence  of  this  fact,  the  deeper 
the  well  the  greater  was  the  area  of  pollution. 

In  considering  wells  one  should  remember  that 
the  geological  characters  of  the  strata  have  much 
to  do  with  the  purity  of  the  water.  Some  strata 
being  exceedingly  pervious,  while  others,  for  example, 


Rural  and  Suburban  Sanitation        175 

the  thick,  heavy  clay  of  some  of  our  river-bottoms, 
are  almost  as  impervious  to  water  as  concrete.  In 
a  region  of  upturned  strata,  like  the  Appalachian  of 
Pennsylvania,  and  in  a  limestone  region  with  its 
numerous  caverns  and  underground  passages,  exceed- 


FIG.  38. — The  Town  Pump — a  thing  to  be  avoided. 
(Photograph  by  the  Author.) 

ing  care  must  be  exercised,  for  in  such  localities 
infection  may  follow  from  some  distant  source. 
Only  a  careful  study  of  a  place  will  give  positive 
results  as  to  the  reliability  of  a  well-water.  Better  it 
is  to  study  the  locality  thoroughly  at  first  than  to 


176       Outlines  of  Practical  Sanitation 

carelessly   sink    money    in    the    ground    and   perhaps 
harvest  a  crop  of  typhoid  fever  later. 

Springs,  which  so  often  furnish  drinking  water, 
are  just  as  good  as  their  environment.  If  they 
are  situated  on  an  uncultivated  and  uninhabited 
upland  they  will  very  likely  yield  a  pure  water. 
Since  springs  are  only  overflows  of  the  ground-water, 
their  condition  is  dependent  on  the  geological 
character  of  the  strata  through  which  the  water 
passes.  In  a  region  of  upturned  rock-layers  there 
may  be,  as  in  the  case  of  wells,  seepage  of  pollution 
from  places  little  suspected,  unless  one  is  thoroughly 
conversant  with  the  place.  Lakes,  rivers,  and  small 
streams  are  sources  that  must  be  carefully  studied 
before  resorting  to  them.  The  small  brook  especially 
must  be  carefully  examined  before  use.  It  is  only 
when  such  a  brook  comes  from  an  uninhabited  upland 
that  it  is  safe  and  pure. 

WASTE  DISPOSAL 

Waste  disposal  is  another  item — it  is  the  item  in 
rural  sanitation,  for  if  all  waste  was  properly  disposed  of 
there  would  be  no  water-  nor  air-pollution.  In  places 
where  water-service  is  available,  sewage  and  the  dis- 
posal of  sewage  becomes  a  question.  Unfortunately, 
however,  water-service  always  precedes  sewerage-ser- 
vice which  is  just  the  opposite  of  what  it  should  be. 
It  is  the  old  story  of  the  cart  before  the  horse,  and, 
as  a  consequence  of  this  inverted  arrangement,  there 


1* 


C    C/3 
In 

O     - 


Rural  and  Suburban  Sanitation         179 

comes  about  the  growth  of  the  cesspool — the  leaking, 
soil-poisoning  cesspool — the  growth  and  development 
of  which  is  an  interesting  story.  The  prosperous 
rural  dweller  has  been  to  the  city  and  recognizes  the 
convenience  of  the  water-closet  and  bathtub  and, 
deciding  to  have  one  of  his  own,  engages  the  service 
of  a  plumber.  The  fixtures  are  put  up,  and  then 
arises  the  question  about  the  disposal  of  the  sewage, 
for  sewage  it  will  be.  The  householder,  perhaps, 
says  that  he  will  do  as  his  city  friends  and  run  it 
into  the  sewer,  forgetting  that  there  are  no  sewers; 
but  the  wise  plumber,  who  has  been  in  such  places 
before,  helps  him  out  of  the  difficulty  by  running 
the  soil-pipe  into  the  old  privy,  and  tells  him,  if  it 
gets  filled,  to  have  it  emptied.  In  the  majority  of 
cases  it  will  never  get  full,  for  the  simple  reason 
that  most  of  the  water  will  leak  into  the  surrounding 
soil — incidentally  perhaps  into  some  one's  well  or 
water-pipes. 

The  only  way  to  dispose  of  sewage  from  an  isolated 
house  is  by  some  method  of  surface  or  subsoil  drainage: 
First  permitting  the  sewage  to  flow  into  a  settling- 
tank  where  the  solid  particles  are  broken  up  and 
decomposed  by  bacterial  action,  and  th°,n  discharging 
the  resultant  liquid  by  an  automatic  siphon  over 
cultivated  land  or  into  the  tiles  of  a  subsoil-drainage 
system. 

Where  water-service  is  not  available  the  right  way 
to  dispose  of  excreta  is  by  means  of  what  is  known 
as  the  "dry"  closet.  This  calls  for  the  use  of  a 


180       Outlines  of  Practical  Sanitation 

galvanized-iron  pail  and  a  seat  exactly  like  that  of 
an  ordinary  water-closet  (Fig.  39).  At  the  side  of 
the  seat  is  a  box  for  holding  the  absorbent,  which 
consists  of  sifted-coal  ashes  or  dry  earth.  After  use, 
a  little  of  the  absorbent  is  scattered  in  the  pail,  and 


FIG.  40. — The  Typhoid-breeder  in  the  Country.     "Man's  Back  Yard 
and  the  Devil's  Cesspcol  (Privy)."     Osier.      (Photo,  by  the  Author.) 

when  the  pail  is  filled  it  is  emptied  on  cultivated 
land — a  field  or  a  garden-bed.  If  the  pail  is  emptied 
near  the  house,  a  little  earth  should  be  raked  over 
the  pile,  and  in  a  short  time — a  week  or  two  in  sum- 
mer, with  a  corresponding  increase  in  cold  weather — 
all  evidence  of  filth  will  have  disappeared.  Thus 


<U       C 


CO     C 


FIG.  42. — Showing  Iron  Rack  supporting  Flour-sack  for  Use  as  a 
Waste  Receptacle.     (Photograph  by  the  Author.) 


Rural  and  Suburban  Sanitation        185 

simple  is  the  dry  closet — an  arrangement  which,  if 
taken  proper  care  of,  is  perfectly  cleanly,  inodorous, 
and  sanitary.  The  old  country  privy  should  not  be 
used  under  any  consideration.  Dr.  Osier  is  authority 
for  saying  that  the  cause  of  so  much  rural  typhoid  is 
"God's  country,  man's  back  yard,  and  the  devil's  cess- 
pool (privy)"  (Fig.  40).  When  the  dry  method  is 
used  we  will  have  certain  waste-waters  from  the 
bath  and  kitchen-sink  to  dispose  of,  and  this  is  best 
done  by  some  form  of  surface-drain  suspended  over 
the  garden-bed.  The  one  shown  in  the  photograph 
(Fig.  41 )  is  made  of  a  six-inch  galvanized-roof  gutter, 
pierced  every  twelve  inches  by  one-fourth-inch  holes. 
This  allows  the  filthy  water  to  be  distributed  evenly 
over  the  ground  without  forming  puddles  and  mud- 
holes.  The  solid  refuse  about  country  and  village 
houses  generally  adorns  the  ash-pile  or  the  alley.  The 
disposal  of  these  products  becomes  easy,  if  the  various 
kinds  are  collected  and  kept  separate.  A  good  way  is 
to  have  a  series  of  receptacles  for  the  different  mate- 
rials and  a  certain  place  for  each  one,  or,  perhaps, 
better  have  all  these  receptacles  arranged  together  in 
a  large  box  near  the  kitchen  door.  In  one  receptacle, 
which  might  be  a  flour-sack  supported  by  an  iron  rack 
as  shown  in  Fig.  42,  we  would  collect  the  rags,  paper, 
etc.  In  another,  tin  cans,  bottles,  and  such  rubbish; 
then  in  a  suitable  can  the  ashes,  and  in  another  the 
garbage — that  is,  the  solid  waste  from  the  kitchen. 
Now  as  to  the  ultimate  disposal  of  this  solid  waste: 
the  garbage  is  best  disposed  of  by  earth  burial — 


i  86       Outlines  of  Practical  Sanitation 

simply  put  into  a  shallow  furrow  in  a  field  and  covered 
with  a  little  earth.  If  the  garden-bed  is  near  the 
kitchen  a  good  way  is  to  have  a  hole  in  the  bed 
and  practice  daily  disposal  of  the  garbage.  Every 
evening  it  should  be  covered  with  earth,  and,  in  addi- 
tion, a  tight  board-lid  should  cover  the  hole  during 
the  summer  months,  else  the  place  may  become 
a  breeding-place  for  flies  and  degenerate  into  a  nui- 
sance. The  non-combustible  part  of  the  rubbish, 
such  as  bottles,  tin  cans,  scraps  of  metal,  etc.,  can 
usually  be  sold  to  the  junk-dealer,  and  the  combus- 
tible part — rags  and  paper — if  not  salable,  should  be 
destroyed  by  fire.  Ashes  can  be  used  in  almost  any 
place  for  filling,  making  paths,  and  for  foundations 
under  pavements. 


CHAPTER  XII 
Personal    Hygiene 

HEREDITY 

NE  might  live  under  the  best  sanitary  con- 
ditions described  in  the  preceding  pages, 
drinking  pure  water,  eating  pure  food, 
and  breathing  pure  air,  yet  he  might  be 
doomed  to  a  life  of  sickness  and  an  early  death,  for 
lack  of  knowledge  of  how  to  care  for  that  delicately, 
although  strongly,  made  machine  known  as  the 
human  body.  Unfortunately,  this  machine,  though 
"fresh  from  the  hand  of  the  Maker,"  is  often  defec- 
tive in  many  respects,  and  this  brings  up  the  important 
question  of  heredity;  important,  vastly  important  it 
is,  for  "blood"  does  tell.  I  do  not  mean  the  "blue 
blood"  of  a  tainted  and  worn-out  aristocracy,  but  the 
good  red  blood  of  health,  derived  from  healthy  ances- 
tors who  lived  their  days  in  sobriety  and  uprightness, 
and  bequeathed  to  their  descendants  good  strong 
hearts,  elastic  and  healthy  arteries  and  organs,  and 
a  constitution  able  to  resist  the  inroads  of  disease; 
this  is  the  kind  of  blood  that  does  tell,  and  the 

187 


i  88       Outlines  of  Practical  Sanitation 

child  that  has  this  kind  is  highly  favored  among  his 
fellows. 

A  certain  young  lady  known  to  the  author  while 
out  camping  developed  a  catarrhal  pneumonia;  for 
a  whole  summer  she  was  ill,  but  finally  overcame 
the  disease.  To  that  young  lady  ancestry  was  of 
vital  importance,  for  every  doctor  knows  the  course 
of  such  a  disease  when  it  attacks  those  who  are 
born  with  a  low-grade  constitution,  especially  those 
prone  to  that  terrible  disease — tuberculosis. 

Yet  even  if  one  is  burdened  with  ancestral  weak- 
ness much  may  be  done  to  make  life  healthy  and 
useful,  by  special  care  to  the  little  details  of  right 
living.  And  a  life  begun  with  the  best  of  hereditary 
factors  may  be  embarrassed  by  ailments  brought  on 
by  careless  living. 

FOOD 

In  order  to  keep  the  body  in  effectual  working  order 
we  need  a  certain  amount  of  food.  To  understand 
properly  this  question  we  must  have  a  clear  knowledge 
of  the  composition  of  food,  the  nutrient  parts  of 
which  are  divided  into  four  principal  classes:  protein, 
fats,  carbohydrates,  and  mineral  matter  or  salts; 
water,  of  course,  while  necessary  for  the  human 
machinery,  is  simply  a  diluent  and  is  not  transposed 
into  anything  else. 

The  proteins,  consisting  of  the  albumin  of  eggs, 
the  casein  of  milk,  lean  meat,  gluten  of  wheat,  etc., 
help  to  form  tissue  and  are  also  broken  up  and  used 


Personal  Hygiene 


as  fuel.  The  fats,  composed  of  various  animal  and 
vegetable  fat,  are  stored  up  in  the  body  as  fat  and 
are  also  burnt  up  as  fuel.  The  carbohydrates  include 
the  various  sugars  and  starches;  they  are  transformed 
into  fats  and  are  stored  up  in  the  liver  as  glycogen. 
The  mineral  matters  are  made  up  of  the  various 
salts,  chlorides,  phosphates,  etc.  I  have  included 
below  a  table  of  a  few  of  the  more  common  foods, 
showing  the  proportions  of  the  various  nutrient 
ingredients. 

COMPOSITION  OF  DIFFERENT  FOODS 


Food  Materials. 

Water. 

Protein. 

Fat. 

Carbohy- 
drates. 

Fuel  Value, 
i  Pound. 

Sirloin 

Per  Cent. 
48    3 

Per  Cent. 
1C 

Per  Cent. 

16  4 

Per  Cent. 

Calories. 
O7O 

Ham     

f-1  •  j 

36  8 

14 

^6 

I7^c 

Eggfs.  . 

44-  6 

1C 

I  .2 

33O 

Chicken  

6^.1 

12.  I 

IO.  2 

6cc 

Shad  

•2C 

Q.  2 

4.8 

37C 

Codfish 

4O 

16 

O   4 

3IC. 

Oysters            .... 

1C.  .4 

I  .  I 

O.  2 

0.6 

40 

Milk 

8? 

?  6 

4   O 

4    7 

•?2C. 

Butter          

w/ 

10  c. 

o  •  w 
1  .0 

8c 

O.  C. 

o^J 

"?6ic, 

Wheat  flour  
Oatmeal          .... 

12 

7  6 

II 

1C  .  I 

I  .  I 

7.  1 

75 
68.2 

1645 

i8e,o 

Corn  meal  

ic 

Q.  2 

3-8 

7o 

164=; 

Potatoes     

7O 

2.  I 

O.  I 

18 

37^ 

In  the  above  table  the  fuel-value  is  the  only  other 
item  that  requires  explanation.  The  food  consumed 
in  the  body  develops  energy  and  this,  in  the  form  of 
heat,  is  measured  by  means  of  an  apparatus  called 
the  calorimeter.  "The  unit  used  is  called  the  caloric, 
and  is  the  amount  of  heat  which  would  raise  the  tern- 


190       Outlines  of  Practical  Sanitation 


perature  of  a  pound  of  water  four  degrees  Fahrenheit." 
(Atwater. )  The  amount  of  salts  in  the  various  foods 
has  been  omitted  from  the  table  as  unnecessary  to 
an  elementary  understanding  of  the  subject. 

Now  in  furnishing  food — that  is  fuel — to  the  human 
body  it  has  been  found  that  these  food-ingredients 
must  be  mixed  in  a  certain  proportion  to  bring  about 
the  best  results;  that  is,  one's  diet  must  contain  a 
certain  amount  of  proteid,  fat,  carbohydrate,  and 
salts  in  the  proper  proportion,  or  else  the-  body 
suffers  in  one  way  or  another.  It  has  been  found, 
after  numerous  experiments,  that  a  daily  diet  com- 
posed of  0.28  of  a  pound  of  proteid,  0.28  of  a  pound 
of  fat,  and  0.99  of  a  pound  of  carbohydrates,  yielding 
a  fuel-value  of  about  3500  calories,  furnishes  a  suit- 
able amount  of  daily  nourishment  for  a  man  doing 
light  muscular  work;  and  to  get  this  it  is  necessary 
to  eat  a  certain  quantity  of  meat  and  vegetables;  for 
example,  12  ounces  of  sirloin  steak,  3  ounces  of  but- 
ter, 28  ounces  of  milk,  12  ounces  of  potatoes,  and 
12  ounces  of  flour,  (see  table)  yield  just  about  the 
amount  required  and  could  be  considered  a  standard 


Food. 

Amount. 

Proteid. 

Fat. 

Carbo- 
hydrates. 

Calories. 

Sirloin  

Ounces. 

12 

Pounds. 
O    12 

Pounds. 

O    1  3 

Pounds. 

72C 

Butter  

9 

o  16 

680 

Milk.  .  . 

28 

o  06 

o  08 

o  08 

C7O 

Potatoes  

12 

O    OI 

0/u 

12 

o  08 

O    OI 

TO  •?  e 

A^oo 

0.27 

0.38 

o-75 

345° 

Personal  Hygiene  191 

daily  diet  for  a  person  doing  an  average  day's  work. 
Thus,  by  knowing  the  amount  of  each  food  eaten 
and  getting  the  nutrient  values  from  the  table,  we 
can  readily  discover  if  any  given  diet  is  yielding 
sufficient  nourishment. 

There  are  other  factors  entering  into  such  calcu- 
lations which  must  be  considered.  I  once,  as  noted 
on  page  27,  computed  the  diet  tables  of  a  certain 
municipal  institution,  with  the  result  of  showing  (on 
paper)  that  the  inmates  were  getting  an  ample  amount 
of  nourishment,  but  somewhere  something  was  wrong, 
for  the  hospital  wards  held  a  number  of  cases  of  scurvy, 
and  defective  nutrition  was  marked  on  many  a  face. 
Investigation  resulted  in  the  discovery  that  the  food 
was  so  badly  prepared  and  carelessly  served  that  it 
failed  utterly  in  giving  the  nourishment  intended. 

A  one-sided  diet,  for  instance,  one  defective  in  pro- 
teids,  does  not  sufficiently  nourish  the  body;  espe- 
cially the  diet  of  potatoes  and  cabbage  which  is  so 
common  among  the  poorer  classes  during  a  period  of 
"hard  times."  Although  such  food  does  give  a  feeling 
of  sufficiency,  it  does  not  yield  nutriment  enough, 
and  the  subject  living  on  such  a  diet  really  suffers 
from  chronic  starvation,  and  is  unable  to  withstand 
the  violence  of  disease  with  anything  like  the  power 
of  a  well-fed  person.  On  the  other  hand,  excessive 
eating  is  deleterious,  especially  excessive  meat  eating 
(which  is  one  of  our  national  vices),  for  proteid  waste 
leaves  the  body  by  way  of  the  kidneys  and  conse- 
quently an  excessive  meat  diet  tends  to  overtax 


192       Outlines  of  Practical  Sanitation 

these  organs,  and  leads,  sooner  or  later,  to  degenerative 
changes. 

The  beverages,  tea  and  coffee,  while  not  exactly 
foods  are  valuable  adjuncts  which  warm  the  stomach, 
produce  local  excitement,  and  consequently  aid 
digestion;  while  the  excessive  use  of  either  tea  or 
coffee  is  to  be  deplored,  the  moderate  use  of  either 
or  both  is  without  injury  to  most  people.  Children, 
to  be  sure,  should  not  use  either;  the  custom  preva- 
lent among  certain  classes  of  people  of  giving  babies 
"coffee  soup"  is  bad,  very  bad. 

The  use  of  alcohol,  which  is  to  a  certain  degree 
burnt  up  in  the  system  as  food,  is  not  to  be  counten- 
anced except  on  medical  advice.  Although  the  ordi- 
nary "drunk"  makes  a  worse  impression  and  gives 
a  better  moral  lesson,  the  habitual  daily  drinker,  the 
one  who  never  gets  drunk,  is  the  one  who  suffers 
most  and  does  his  system  vastly  more  harm,  for  it 
has  been  found  that  the  daily  use  of  even  small  doses 
of  alcohol  continued  through  the  years  is  sure  to 
bring  on  various  degenerative  changes  which  even- 
tually lead  to  irreparable  disease. 

EXERCISE 

Exercise  is  necessary  for  the  healthy  action  of 
the  human  body,  and  lack  of  exercise  brings  about 
lack  of  nutrition,  wasting,  and  degeneration  of  the 
tissues.  Exercise  makes  the  muscles  large  and  strong, 
increases  the  strength  and  power  of  the  heart  and 


Personal  Hygiene  193 

respiration;  causes  elimination  of  the  waste  carbon 
from  the  body;  increases  the  appetite,  because  more 
food  is  needed  by  the  muscles,  and  also  brings  about 
a  more  perfect  digestion  of  food;  it  increases  the 
amount  of  perspiration  and  causes  a  demand  for  more 
water. 

How  much  exercise  one  should  take  daily  is  a  very 
variable  thing.  A  walk  of  8  or  9  miles  per  day,  or 
its  equivalent,  has  been  considered,  from  the  labora- 
tory point  of  view,  to  be  sufficient.  The  exercise 
which  goes  with  outdoor  camping,  tramping,  hunt- 
ing, and  fishing  is  hardly  likely  to  be  overdone. 
Walking  is  probably  the  best  routine  exercise;  it 
has  the  advantage  of  being  the  cheapest.  Bicycle 
riding  is  splendid  and  exhilarating,  but  there  is  con- 
siderable likelihood  of  overtaxing  the  heart,  especially 
in  hill-climbing.  Boating,  swimming,  skating,  and 
horseback  riding  all  yield  healthy  exercise.  All  exer- 
cise, however,  should  be  indulged  in  with  moderation; 
the  object  being  to  stop  short  of  the  point  of  fatigue; 
every  one  has  experienced  the  restless  night  when 
he  was  "too  tired  to  sleep,"  brought  about  by  excessive 
physical  exercise. 

When  we  come  to  take  up  the  study  of  athletics 
there  is  another  tale  to  tell,  for  athletic  exercise  quite 
often  means  physical  overexertion ;  this,  with  the 
muscular  fatigue  following  it,  interferes  with  the 
healthy  nutrition  of  the  various  organs.  With  the 
increase  of  muscular  development  following  exercise 
there  follows  also  an  increased  development  of  the  heart 


1 94       Outlines  of  Practical  Sanitation 

muscle,  known  as  cardiac  hypertrophy,  which  is  so 
common  among  those  indulging  in  excessive  exercise 
that  it  has  been  named  "athlete's  heart."  Hyper- 
trophied  heart  tissue,  like  any  other,  is  prone  to 
degenerate;  consequently  the  college  athlete,  in  fact 
any  athlete,  unless  the  exercise  is  continued  in  late 
life,  is  very  liable  to  suffer  from  degenerative  heart 
changes.  About  football  there  is  also  a  word  to  say — 
football  has  had  a  bad  record.  Dr.  Coughlin  of 
Brooklyn  recently  kept  a  count  of  football  casualties, 
and  found  that  during  one  year  there  were  35  deaths, 
500  severe  injuries,  and  16  cases  of  spinal  injuries, 
followed  by  paralysis,  to  be  attributed  to  this  one 
sport.  When  we  remember  that  the  cardinal  object 
in  all  athletics  is  improvement  of  the  general  health, 
it  would  seem  that  there  should  be  some  change  in 
the  method  of  playing  a  game  which  yields  such  a 
mortality  rate. 

CLOTHING 

Our  prehistoric  ancestors  invented  clothing  to  pro- 
tect the  body  from  cold  and  heat  and  rain,  and  although 
it  is  a  long  way  from  the  apron  of  fig-leaves  to  the 
present,  modern  garments  are  still  made  for  the 
same  purpose — the  cut,  shape,  etc.,  being  subsidiary 
points.  In  protecting  the  body  from  cold  we  have 
found  that  what  is  needed  is  not  only  something  to 
keep  the  cold  out  but  to  keep  the  heat  in,  and  for 
this  reason  we  wear  woollen  garments,  for  wool,  being 


Personal  Hygiene  195 

woven  with  a  large  mesh  which  contains  great  quan- 
tities of  air  is  a  splendid  non-conductor  of  heat;  it 
is  also  a  good  absorbent  of  moisture,  hence  prevents 
too  rapid  evaporation  and  consequent  sudden  chilling 
of  the  body.  The  only  disadvantages  of  wool  are  its 
irritating  properties  and  its  shrinking  in  washing. 
A  garment  of  75  per  cent  wool,  unless  very  carefully 
washed,  will  shrink  to  about  one-half  its  original  size ; 
fame  and  fortune  will  surely  be  the  lot  of  the  man 
who  can  make  an  all-wool  garment  that  does  not 
shrink.  Silk  is  about  as  good  a  non-conductor  as 
wool,  is  soft  and  light,  but  has  the  disadvantage  of 
being  costly. 

Cotton  and  linen,  on  the  other  hand,  are  good  con- 
ductors of  heat  and  lack  the  absorbent  properties 
of  wool  and  silk,  hence  they  furnish  the  material 
for  garments  used  in  warm  weather  and  in  tropical 
climates.  Linen  is  more  durable  but  more  expensive 
than  cotton.  When  one  is  exposed  to  sudden  changes 
of  temperature  or  to  much  exercise  cotton  should 
not  be  worn  next  the  skin,  unless  it  is  changed  imme- 
diately after  exercise,  otherwise  there  is  too  rapid 
cooling  of  the  body  and  danger  of  "taking  cold"; 
cotton  can  take  the  place  of  wool  in  a  certain  degree 
if  woven  like  wool  with  a  very  large  mesh;  such  a 
garment,  containing  much  air-space,  acts  more  or 
less  as  a  non-conductor  of  heat. 


196       Outlines  of  Practical  Sanitation 


BATHING 

There  was  probably  a  time  when  humanity  took 
no  baths,  as  is  said  to  be  the  fact  to-day  among  the 
hairy  Ainu — a  savage  tribe  of  Japan — "who  never 
wash  themselves  from  birth  till  death."  But  for 
civilized  man,  or  rather  to  be  civilized,  it  is  necessary 
to  bathe  at  frequent  intervals,  not  only  for  the  sake 
of  cleanliness,  but  in  order  to  keep  the  pores  of  the 
skin  open  and  their  action  unobstructed,  for  when 
the  skin  fails  to  do  its  work  of  elimination  more 
work  is  thrown  on  the  kidneys. 

There  are  several  rules  to  be  observed  by  those 
who  go  in  bathing  or  swimming,  if  they  would  do 
themselves  no  harm.  For  example,  no  one  should 
remain  in  the  water  after  he  begins  to  feel  chilly. 
This  feeling  of  cold,  of  chattering  teeth  and  blue 
lips  is  a  sign  of  internal  congestion,  to  continue  which 
is  a  serious  risk;  nor  should  one  jump  into  cold  water 
feet  first,  for  this  brings  on  a  sudden  increase  of  blood 
pressure  in  the  head,  which  may  lead  to  partial 
unconsciousness  and  drowning;  perhaps  a  good 
many  cases  of  drowning  caused  by  "cramp"  may  be 
due  to  this  cause,  or  to  the  nausea  and  faintness  caused 
by  going  in  the  water  soon  after  eating. 

The  Turkish  bath,  which  requires  only  brief  men- 
tion, consists  of  a  dry  hot-air  bath  at  the  tempera- 
ture of  120°  to  170°  F.  for  ten  or  fifteen  minutes; 
after  this  a  hot  shower-bath,  followed  by  a  thorough 


Personal  Hygiene  197 

scrubbing  with  soap,  and  a  warm  shower  gradually 
changing  to  a  cold  one.  The  Russian  bath  is  much 
the  same  except  that  moist  air  (steam)  at  150°  F. 
is  used  for  the  first  bath  instead  of  dry  air.  Both  of 
these  baths  cause  excessive  perspiration  and  thorough 
action  of  the  skin,  and  are  of  much  value  as  a  means 
of  cleanliness,  but  should  not  be  indulged  in  too  fre- 
quently nor  too  long  at  a  time. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  in  this  connection  that 
many  of  the  wild  Indian  tribes  of  North  America 
used  the  hot  steam-bath  as  a  remedial  measure. 
Heckewelder  says  that  "the  sweat-lodge  is  the  first 
thing  an  Indian  has  recourse  to  when  he  feels  indis- 
posed." Overburdened  with  rheumatic  complaints, 
as  we  know  they  were,  it  is  no  wonder  they  had 
great  faith  in  this  bath.  Though  only  consisting  of 
a  closed  lodge,  some  hot  stones,  and  a  dish  of  water, 
with  perhaps  a  hot  decoction  of  some  native  roots, 
it  answered  well  the  needs  of  a  primitive  and  exposed 
life. 

THE  SIMPLE  LIFE 

The  essential  part  of  a  good  deal  of  personal  hygiene 
may  be  summed  up  in  the  "simple  life,"  as  depicted 
by  Pastor  Wagner,  John  Burroughs,  John  Muir,  and 
a  host  of  other  writers  and  thinkers.  The  strenuous 
life  of  a  frontier  sheriff,  the  political  turmoil  of  the 
giddy  office-seeker,  the  wild  scramble  and  greed  for 
gold,  all  these  exhaust  and  wear  out  an  overtaxed 


198       Outlines  of  Practical  Sanitation 

nervous  system,  react  on  digestion,  and  may  finally 
shorten  a  useful  life. 

The  rush  and  the  hurry  and  the  bustle  of  Broadway 
at  noon  I  do  love  to  see  sometimes,  but  it  is,  neverthe- 
less, the  "pace  that  kills."  We  can  keep  it  up  for  a 
time,  but  rest  must  come — rest  and  relaxation — if  we 
expect  the  human  machinery  to  continue.  It  is  easier 
to  do  twelve  months'  work  in  eleven  months  than  to 
do  twelve  months'  work  in  twelve  months,  some  one 
has  aptly  said.  The  overworked  man  or  woman  would 
do  well  to  read,  and  ponder  over,  that  delightful  book 
"  A  Journey  to  Nature,"  by  J.  P.  Mowbray. 

The  continual  excitement  and  nervous  strain  of 
excessive  social  pleasures:  late  dinners,  later  to  bed, 
luxurious  ease,  and  a  listless  life;  Colonial  Dames 
and  King's  Daughters;  living  on  the  small  talk  of  the 
world  instead  of  good  bread  and  butter;  this,  too,  is 
the  "pace  that  kills" — kills  motherhood,  the  glory 
of  woman. 


THE 

UNIVERSITY  1 

OF 


INDEX 


PAGE 

Actinomycosis 142 

Air,  examination  of 20 

sewer 5 

Air-space 13 

Albany  filter-plant 41 

Alcohol,  use  of 192 

Algae,  copper  treatment  of 47 

Alto,  Mt 128 

Altoona,  Pa in 

American  Public  Health  Association,  quoted 47,  127 

Ammonia,    albuminoid 51 

free 51 

Anthrax 138,  142 

Arnold  process 68 

Artesian  wells 32 

Ashes,  disposal  of 71,  186 

Asylums 26 

Athletics 193 

Bacillus  coli 53 

tuberculosis 127 

typhosus .    54,  129 

Back  yard,  the 23 

Bacteria,  aerobic 61,64 

anaerobic 6 1 ,  64 

Bath,  Russian 197 

Turkish 196 

Bathing 1 96 

199 


2oo  Index 

PAGE 

Bathroom,  a  model 6 

Baths,  public 157 

Roman  157 

Bell,  Dr.,  quoted n,  12,  89 

Births,  registration  of 142 

Boom's  test. .  ."" 20 

Boston 68 

Bread  85 

alum  in 94 

Breslau,  method  of 122 

Brooklyn 153 

Bucke,  R.  M.,  quoted 60 

Burroughs,  John,  quoted 197 

Butler,  Pa 46 

California 174 

Canada 174 

Car  sanitation 109 

Carbon  dioxide , 12,  20,  21 

Cars,  cleaning  of no 

furnishing  of 1 10 

heating  of in 

ventilation  of 111,112 

Catlin,  George,  quoted 120 

Celli,  quoted 130 

Cerebrospinal  fever 125 

Chadwick,  Edwin,  quoted 105 

Chicken-pox 142 

Chocolate 93 

Cholera 132,  142 

Cincinnati 44 

Clark  process .  39 

Clothing 194 

Cocoa. 93 

Coffee,  use  of 192 

Comma  bacillus 132 

Connecticut,  death-rate  in 144 

Contact-filters .' §4 

Cottonseed-oil 93 

Coughlin,  Dr.,  quoted 194 

Cows,  the 75,  76 


Index  20 1 

PAGE 

Cow-stable,  a  model 79 

Cremator,  Engle 69 

Dakota 33 

Death-rate 144 

typhoid 145 

Deaths,  registration  of.  . 143 

De  Foe,  quoted 137 

Delaware  River 58 

Diet,  a  standard 190 

Diphtheria     2,  74,  123,  142 

antitoxin  in 124 

Diseases,  contagious  and  infectious 119 

registration  of 142 

Disinfection,  gaseous 122 

Drinking- fountain 100 

Drinking-water 115 

Dry  closet,  the 179 

construction  of 180 

disposal  of  contents  of 180 

for  cars 115 

for  schools 103,  104 

Dudley,  Dr.,  quoted in 

Dwellings,  rural 167 

Dysentery 143 

Egbert,  quoted 20,  106 

Ehrlich,  Prof.,  quoted 86 

Erysipelas 143 

Excreta,  disposal  of 113 

Exercise    192 

amount  of 193 

Expectoration,  public 1 18,  165 

Filter-beds,  covered 44 

Filters,  contact 64,  65 

Filtration,  American 45 

continuous 43 

domestic 46 

intermittent 44,  6 1,  65 

rapid 45 


2O2  Index 

PAGE 

Fish 90 

Flies 131 

Florida 174 

Foods,  adulteration  of 92 

cold-storage 92 

composition  of 1 88,  189 

Food-supplies 85 

Foundations 2 

construction  of 2 ,  1 7 1 

Fruit,  California 89 

Fruits 86 

Garbage,  burying  of 67 

cremation  of 69,  72 

disposal  of 66,  185 

dumping  of 67 

feeding  of 67 

reduction  of 68,  72 

Glanders 139,  143 

Goodell,  quoted 106 

Grass,  John,  quoted 129 

Ground-air    170 

composition  of 170 

movement  of 170 

Ground-moisture  '. 168 

and  rheumatism 169 

and  phthisis 169 

Ground-water    169 

and  typhoid  fever 170 

Habitations    i 

construction  of i 

Haffkine,  serum  of 137 

Harrisburg 45 

Havana 136 

Hazen,  Allen,  quoted 44 

Heating,  by  direct-indirect  radiation 17 

by  indirect  radiation 17 

hot-air 15 

hot-water 16 

of  large  buildings 19 

steam. .                                                            16 


Index  203 


Heckewelder,  quoted 197 

Heredity 187 

Hering,  Rudolph,  quoted 68 

Hospitals 24 

House-drain 4 

House-trap 4 

Howard,  John 26 

Howard,  L.  O.,  quoted 131 

Hydrophobia    138,  143 

treatment  of 138 

Hygiene,  personal 187 

Ice,  handling  of 1 16 

Ice-supplies 54 

Illumination,  artificial 21 

Incinerator,  Thackeray 69 

Irrigation,  broad 58,  65 

Island,  Manhattan 1 50 

Lakes 37 

Lard 93 

Lawrence,  Mass 44 

Lee,  Dr.,  quoted 120 

Leprosy 143 

Life,  the  simple 197 

Loeffler,  bacillus  of 123 

Lytton,  Lord,  quoted 158 

Macaulay,  quoted 148 

Malarial  fever 132,  143 

Mason,  quoted 47 

Massachusetts,  death-rate  in 144 

Measles    122,  143 

German 143 

Meat 90 

Milk    80 

adulteration  of 83 

aeration  of 80 

bacteriological  examination  of 82 

chilling  of 80 

distribution  of 80 

transportation  of 80 


204  Index 

PAGE 

Milkers,  the • 79 

Milk-supply. 74 

Mississippi  River,  the 37 

Montreal 71 

Mosquito  warfare 133 

Mosquitoes,  malarial 134 

Mowbray,  J.  P . .  .  . 198 

Muir,  John,  quoted 34,  197 

Mumps 143 

New  Jersey. 67 

New  Orleans 136 

New  York  City. ..    2,    67,   68,    71,    72,    82,    107,    153,    161,  173 

New  York,  death-rate  in 144 

Nuisance,  the  smoke 161 

the  spitting 165 

Oleomargarine • 93 

Olive-oil 93 

Open  fireplace. 14 

Osier,  Dr.,  quoted .  . 185 

Overcrowding .......'... 150 

Oysters 90 

opening  of .  .  .  . .  . 90,  91 

Panama 136 

Parks,  public. 160 

Pasteur  treatment 138 

Pennsylvania 30,  75,  94,  140,  174 

Department  of  Health,  quoted 142 

Philadelphia 44 

Phthisis i 

Pittsburg 44 

Plague,  the 137,  142 

the  Great  White 151 

Playgrounds 160 

Plumbing    4 

peppermint  test  for 10 

sanitary 4 

Plymouth,  Pa 55 

Pneumonia 143 


Index  205 


PAGE 

Precipitation,  chemical 6 1 

Preservative,  salicylic  acid  as  a 94 

sodium  sulphite  as  a 94 

Prisons 26 

Privy,  the  country 185 

"  Public  Water-supplies,"  quoted 37 

Puerperal  fever 143 

Pump,  the  "town" 174 

Push-cart,  the 89,  91 

Rain-bath,  the 158 

Reading,  sewage  filtration  at 62 

Relapsing  fever 143 

Rheumatism   i 

muscular i 

Riis,  Jacob  A.,  quoted 151 

Rivers 37 

Room,  disinfection  of  a 121 

Rothrock,  Dr • 128 

Rubbish,  disposal  of .    71,  185 

Sand  filtration.     See  Filtration. 

"Sanitarian,"  quoted 89,  100 

Sanitation,  car 109 

municipal 147 

rural 166 

school 95 

suburban 166 

San  Francisco 7  J >  72 

Scarlet  fever 74,  123,  143 

School  children,  seating  of 96 

Scholarship 105 

Schools,  medical  inspection  of 106 

overwork  in 105 

playgrounds  for 106 

privy  for 103 

water-supply  for 100 

Schoolrooms,  heating  of 97 

lighting  of 99 

ventilation  of 97,  98 

Sewage    56 


206  Index 

PAGE 

Sewage,  chemical  precipitation  of 6 1 

dilution  of 58 

disposal  of 58 

farming 58 

intermittent  filtration  of 61 

Sewerage  systems 56   57 

Shade-trees 173 

Shakespeare 148,  167 

Smallpox 120,  143 

among  the  Indians 120 

Smith,  Theobald,  quoted 132 

Soil-pipe 4 

Springs 33,  176 

Stable,  the 76 

air-space  of 76 

cleaning  of 77 

ventilation  of 76 

Stoves   14 

oil-  and  gas- 15 

Statistics,  vital 140 

Steam-bath  among  Indians 197 

St.  Louis 44 

Stratford-on-Avon 148 

Streams 33.  34 

Street-cars   1 1 6 

cleaning  of 1 1 8 

disinfection  of 1 18 

heating  of 117 

overcrowding  of 117 

ventilation  of. 1 1 8 

Street  cleaning 154 

Street-sweepings,  disposal  of 71 

Susquehanna  River 58 

Tank,  septic 64,  65 

Tea    93 

use  of 192 

Tetanus 139,  143 

Theatres 27 

Trachoma 107,  143 

Trichiniasis 143 


Index  207 


PAGE 

Tuberculosis    74,  126,  143 

among  Sioux  Indians 128 

camps 126,  127 

Turneaure  and  Russell,  quoted 37,  39,  40,  44 

Typhoid  fever   30,  34,  47,  55,  74,  129 

death-rate  of 41,  145 

flies  as  disseminators  of 130 

sick-rate  of 145 

Typhus  fever 125 

Urinal,  a  sanitary 28,29 

Utensils,  milking 79 

Vaccination 120 

Vegetables 86 

greening  of 93 

Venice 148 

Ventilating  pipe 6 

Ventilation 1 1 

King  system  of 76 

Vents,  foul-air 19 

Wagner,  Pastor 197 

Waste,  collection  of 65,  66 

disposal  of 56 

liquid 56 

solid 65 

Water,  bacteriological  analysis  of 53 

character  of 32 

chemical  analysis  of , 48 

hardness  of 39 

purification  of 41 

quality  of 38 

quantity  of 38,  39,  40 

storage  of 40 

Water-closets 10, 103 

pan 9 

plunger 10 

valve 9 

wash-down 9 

wash-out 10 


208  Index 


PAGE 

Wash-stand 6 

Water-supplies    30 

rural 174 

sanitary  survey  of . 47 

source  of 31 

Waring,  Col.,  quoted 65,  155,  157 

Warren,  Dr 94 

Wells 31,174 

Artesian 32 

drilled 32 

Whooping-cough 123,  143 

Wolpert's  method 20 

Yellow  fever 135, 143 

and  mosquitoes 135 

Yersin,  serum  of 137 


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*  .fhelps's  Practical  Marine  Surveying 8vo,  2  50 

Powell's  Army  Officer's  Examiner i2mo,  4  oo 

Sharpe's  Art  of  Subsisting  Armies  in  War i8mo,  morocco,  i  50 

*  Walke's  Lectures  on  Explosives 8vo,  4  oo 

*  Wheeler's  Siege  Operations  and  Military  Mining 8vo,  2  oo 

Winthrop's  Abridgment  of  Military  Law i2tno,  2  50 

Woodhull's  Notes  on  Military  Hygiene i6mo,  i  50 

Young's  Simple  Elements  of  Navigation i6mo,  morocco,  i  oo 

Second  Edition,  Enlarged  and  Revised i6mo,  morocco,  2  oo 

ASSAYING. 
Fletcher's  Practical  Instructions  iu  Quantitative  Assaying  with  the  Blowpipe. 

i2mo,  morocco,  i  50 

Furman's  Manual  of  Practical  Assaying 8vo,  3  oo 

Lodge's  Notes  on  Assaying  and  Metallurgical  Laboratory  Experiments.  . .  .8vo,  3  oo 

Miller's  Jlanual  of  Assaying I2mo,  i  oo 

O'Driscoll's  Notes  on  the  Treatment  of  Gold  Ores 8vo,  2  oo 

Ricketts  and  Miller's  Notes  on  Assaying 8vo,  3  oo 

Ulke's  Modern  Electrolytic  Copper  Refining 8vo,  3  oo 

Wilson's  Cyanide  Processes i2mo,  i  50 

Chlorination  Process i2mo,  i  50 

ASTRONOMY. 

Comstock's  Field  Astronomy  for  Engineers 8vo,  2  50 

Craig's  Azimuth 4to,  3  50 

Doolittle's  Treatise  on  Practical  Astronomy 8vo,  4  oo 

Gore's  Elements  of  Geodesy 8vo,  2  50 

Hayford's  Text-book  of  Geodetic  Astronomy 8vo,  3  oo 

Merriman's  Elements  of  Precise  Surveying  and  Geodesy 8vo,  2  50 

*  Michie  and  Har low's  Practical  Astronomy 8vo,  3  oo 

*  White's  Elements  of  Theoretical  and  Descriptive  Astronomy i2mo,  2  oo 

BOTANY. 

Davenport's  Statistical  Methods,  with  Special  Reference  to  Biological  Variation. 

i6mo,  morocco,  i  25 

Thome'  and  Bennett's  Structural  and  Physiological  Botany i6mo,  2  25 

Westermaier's  Compendium  of  General  Botany.     (Schneider.) 8vo,  2  oo 

CHEMISTRY. 

Adriance's  Laboratory  Calculations  .and  Specific  Gravity  Tables i2mo,  i  25 

Allen's  Tables  for  Iron  Analysis 8vo,  3  oo 

Arnold's  Compendium  of  Chemistry.     (Mandel.) Small  8vo,  3  50 

Austen's  Notes  for  Chemical  Students i2mo,  i  50 

Bernadou's  Smokeless  Powder. — Nitro-cellulose,  and  Theory  of  the  Cellulose 

Molecule i2mo,  2  50 

Bolton's  Quantitative  Analysis 8vo.  i  50 

*  Browning's  Introduction  to  the  Rarer  Elements 8vo,  i  50 

Brush  and  Penfield's  Manual  of  Determinative  Mineralogy 8vo,  4  oo> 

Classen's  Quantitative  Chemical  Analysis  by  Electrolysis.    (Boltwood.).  .8vo,  3  oo 

Cohn's  Indicators  and  Test-papers i2mo,  2  oo 

Tests  and  Reagents „ 8vo,  3  oo 

Crafts's  Short  Course  in  Qualitative  Chemical  Analysis.  (Schaeffer.). .  .i2mo,  i  50 
Dolezalek's  Theory  of  the  Lead  Accumulator   (Storage  Battery).        (Von 

Ende.) i2mo,  2  50 

Drechsel's  Chemical  Reactions.     (Merrill.) I2mo,  i  25 

Duhem's  Thermodynamics  and  Chemistry.     (Burgess.) 8vo,  4  oo 

Eissler's  Modern  High  Explosives 8vo,  4  oo 

Eff rent's  Enzymes  and  their  Applications.     (Prescott.) 8vo,  3  oo 

Erdmann's  Introduction  to  Chemical  Preparations.     (Dunlap.) i2mo,  i  25 

3 


Fletcher's  Practical  Instructions  in  Quantitative  Assaying  with  the  Blowpipe. 

I2mo,  morocco,     i  50 

Fowler's  Sewage  Works  Analyses i2mo,    2  oo 

Fresenius's  Manual  of  Qualitative  Chemical  Analysis.     (Wells.) 8vo,    5  oo 

Manual  of  Qualitative  Chemical  Analysis.  Part  I.  Descriptive.  (Wells.)  8vo,    3  oo 
System   of   Instruction   in    Quantitative    Chemical   Analysis.      (Cohn.) 

2  vols gvo,  12  50 

Fuertes's  Water  and  Public  Health i2mo,    i  50 

Furman's  Manual  of  Practical  Assaying 8vo,    3  oo 

*  Getman's  Exercises  in  Physical  Chemistry i2mo!    2  oo 

Gill's  Gas  and  Fuel  Analysis  for  Engineers i2mo,     i   25 

Grotenfelt's  Principles  of  Modern  Dairy  Practice.     (Woll.) i2mo!    2  oo 

Hammarsten's  Text-book  of  Physiological  Chemistry.     (Mandel.) 8vo,    4  oo 

Helm's  Principles  of  Mathematical  Chemistry.     (Morgan.) i2mo,     i  50 

Bering's  Ready  Reference  Tables  (Conversion  Factors) i6mo,  morocco,    2  50 

Hind's  Inorganic  Chemistry 8vo,    3  oo 

,  *          Laboratory  Manual  for  Students i2mo,        75 

Holleman's  Text-book  of  Inorganic  Chemistry.     (Cooper.) 8vo,    2  50 

Text-book  of  Organic  Chemistry.     (Walker  and  Mott.) 8vo,    2  50 

*  Laboratory  Manual  of  Organic  Chemistry.     (Walker.) i2mo,     i  oo 

Hopkins's  Oil-chemists'  Handbook 8vo,    3  oo 

Jackson's  Directions  for  Laboratory  Work  in  Physiological  Chemistry.  .8vo,     i  25 

Keep's  Cast  Iron 8vo,    2  50 

Ladd's  Manual  of  Quantitative  Chemical  Analysis i2mo,     i  oo 

Landauer's  Spectrum  Analysis.     (Tingle.) 8vo,    3  oo 

*  Langworthy  and   Austen.        The   Occurrence   of  Aluminium  in  Vegetable 

Products,  Animal  Products,  and  Natural  Waters 8vo,  2  oo 

Lassar-Cohn's  Practical  Urinary  Analysis.  (Lorenz.) i2mo,  i  oo 

Application  of  Some  General  Reactions  to  Investigations  in  Organic 

Chemistry.  (Tingle.) i2mo,  i  oo 

Leach's  The  Inspection  and  Analysis  of  Food  with  Special  Reference  to  State 

Control. • 8vo,  7  50 

Lob's  Electrolysis  and  Electrosynthesis  of  Organic  Compounds.  (Lorenz. ).i2mo,  i  oo 
Lodge's  Notes  on  Assaying  and  Metallurgical  Laboratory  Experiments.  ..  .8vo,  3  oo 

Lunge's  Techno-chemical  Analysis.  (Cohn.) i2mo,  i  oo 

Mandel's  Handbook  for  Bio-chemical  Laboratory i2mo,  i  50 

*  Martin's  Laboratory  Guide  to  Qualitative  Analysis  with  the  Blowpipe .  .  i2mo,        60 
Mason's  Water-supply.     (Considered  Principally  from  a  Sanitary  Standpoint.) 

3d  Edition,  Rewritten. 8vo,    4  oo 

Examination  of  Water.     (Chemical  and  Bacteriological.) i2mo,     i  25 

Matthew's  The  Textile  Fibres 8vo,    3  50 

Meyer's  Determination  of  Radicles  in  Carbon  Compounds.     (Tingle.).  .i2mo,     i  oo 

Miller's  Manual  of  Assaying i2mo,    i  oo 

Mixter's  Elementary  Text-book  of  Chemistry i2mo,    i  50 

Morgan's  Outline  of  Theory  of  Solution  and  its  Results 121,10,    i  oo 

Elements  of  Physical  Chemistry i2mo,    2  oo 

Morse's  Calculations  used  in  Cane-sugar  Factories i6mo,  morocco,     i  50 

Mulliken's  General  Method  for  the  Identification  of  Pure  Organic  Compounds. 

Vol.  I Large  8vo,    5  oo 

O'Brine's  Laboratory  Guide  in  Chemical  Analysis 8vo,    2  oo 

O'DriscolTs  Notes  on  the  Treatment  of  Gold  Ores 8vo,    2  oo 

Ostwald's  Conversations  on  Chemistry.     Part  One.     (Ramsey.) i2mo,     i  50 

Ostwald's  Conversations  on  Chemistry.     Part  Two.     (Turnbull.).     (In  Press.) 

*  Penfield's  Notes  on  Determinative  Mineralogy  and  Record  of  Mineral  Tests. 

8vo,  paper,         50 

Pictet's  The  Alkaloids  and  their  Chemical  Constitution.     (Biddle.) 8vo,    5  oo 

Pinner's  Introduction  to  Organic  Chemistry.     (Austen.) I2mo,    i  50 

Poole's  Calorific  Power  of  Fuels 8vo,    3  oo 

Prescott  and  Winslow's  Elements  of  Water  Bacteriology,  with  Special  Refer- 
ence to  Sanitary  Water  Analysis i2tno,    i  25 

4 


*  Reisig's  Guide  to  Piece-dyeing.  .  .    - 8vo,  25  oo 

Richards  and  Woodman's  Air,  Water,  and  Food  from  a  Sanitary  Standpoint  8vo,  2  oo 

Richards's  Cost  of  Living  as  Modified  by  Sanitary  Science i2mo,  i  oo 

Cost  of  Food,  a  Study  in  Dietaries i2mo,  i  oo 

*  Richards  and  Williams's  The  Dietary  Computer 8vo,  i  50 

Ricketts  and  Russell's  Skeleton  Notes  upon  inorganic  Chemistry.     (Part  I. 

Non-metallic  Elements.) 8vo,  morocco,  75 

Ricketts  and  Miller's  Notes  on  Assaying 8vo,  3  oo 

Rideal's  Sewage  and  the  Bacterial  Purification  of  Sewage 8vo,  3  50 

Disinfection  and  the  Preservation  of  Food 8vo,  4  oo 

Rigg's  Elementary  Manual  for  the  Chemical  Laboratory 8vo,  i  25 

Rostoski's  Serum  Diagnosis.  (Bolduan.) i2mo,  i  oo 

Ruddiman's  Incompatibilities  in  Prescriptions 8vo,  2  oo 

Sabin's  Industrial  and  Artistic  Technology  of  Paints  and  Varnish 8vo,  3  oo 

Salkowski's  Physiological  and  Pathological  Chemistry.  (Orndorff.) 8vo,  2  50 

Schimpf's  Text-book  of  Volumetric  Analysis i2mo,  2  50 

Essentials  of  Volumetric  Analysis i2mo,  i  25 

Spencer's  Handbook  for  Chemists  of  Beet-sugar  Houses i6mo,  morocco,  3  oo 

Handbook  for  Sugar  Manufacturers  and  their  Chemists.  .  i6mo,  morocco,  2  oo 

Stockbridge's  Rocks  and  Soils 8vo,  2  50 

*  Tillman's  Elementary  Lessons  in  Heat 8vo,  i  50 

*  Descriptive  General  Chemistry 8vo,  3  oo 

Treadwell's  Qualitative  Analysis.     (Hall.) 8vo,  3  oo 

Quantitative  Analysis.     (Hall.) 8vo,  4  oo 

Turneaure  and  Russell's  Public  Water-supplies .8vo,  5  oo 

Van  Deventer's  Physical  Chemistry  for  Beginners.     (Boltwood.) i2mo,  i  50 

*  Walke's  Lectures  on  Explosives 8vo,  4  oo 

Washington's  Manual  of  the  Chemical  Analysis  of  Rocks 8vo,  2  oo 

Wassermann's  Immune  Sera :  Haemolysins,  Cytotoxins,  and  Precipitins.    (Bol- 
duan.)   i2mo,  i  oo 

Well's  Laboratory  Guide  in  Qualitative  Chemical  Analysis 8vo,  i  50 

Short  Course  in  Inorganic  Qualitative  Chemical  Analysis  for  Engineering 

Students i2mo,  i  50 

Text-book  of  Chemical  Arithmetic.     (In  press.) 

Whipple's  Microscopy  of  Drinking-water 8vo,  3  50 

Wilson's  Cyanide  Processes i2mo,  i  50 

Chlorination  Process. i2mo,  i  50 

Wulling's    Elementary    Course    in  Inorganic,  Pharmaceutical,  and  Medical 

Chemistry izmo,  2  oo 

CIVIL  ENGINEERING. 

BRIDGES   AND    ROOFS.       HYDRAULICS.       MATERIALS   OF    ENGINEERING. 
RAILWAY  ENGINEERING. 

Baker's  Engineers'  Surveying  Instruments i2mo,  3  oo 

Bixby's  Graphical  Computing  Table Paper  10^X24!  inches.  25 

**  Burr's  Ancient  and  Modern  Engineering  and  the  Isthmian  Canal.     (Postage, 

27  cents  additional.) 8vo,  3  5<> 

Comstock's  Field  Astronomy  for  Engineers 8vo,  2  50 

Davis's  Elevation  and  Stadia  Tables 8vo,  i  oo 

Elliott's  Engineering  for  Land  Drainage i2mo,  i  50 

Practical  Farm  Drainage i2mo,  i  oo 

Fiebeger's  Treatise  on  Civil  Engineering.     (In  press.) 

FolwelPs  Sewerage.     (Designing  and  Maintenance.) 8vo,  3  oo 

Freitag's  Architectural  Engineering.     2d  Edition,  Rewritten 8vo,  3  50 

French  and  Ives's  Stereotomy 8vo,  2  50 

Goodhue's  Municipal  Improvements I2mo,  i  75 

Goodrich's  Economic  Disposal  of  Towns'  Refuse 8vo,  3  50 

Gore's  Elements  of  Geodesy 8vo,  2  50 

Hayford's  Text-book  of  Geodetic  Astronomy §vo,  3  oo 

Hering's  Ready  Reference  Tables  (Conversion  Factors) i6mo,  morocco,  2  50 

5 


Howe's  Retaining  Walls  for  Earth i2mo,  i  25 

Johnson's  (J.  B.)  Theory  and  Practice  of  Surveying Small  8vo,  4  oo 

Johnson's  (L.  J.)  Statics  by  Algebraic  and  Graphic  Methods 8vo,  oo 

Laplace's  Philosophical  Essay  on  Probabilities.    (Truscott  and  Emory.) .  i2mo,  oo 

Mahan's  Treatise  on  Civil  Engineering.     (1873.)     (Wood.) 8vo,  oo 

*  Descriptive  Geometry 8vo,  50 

Merriman's  Elements  of  Precise  Surveying  and  Geodesy 8vo,  50 

Elements  of  Sanitary  Engineering 8vo,  oo 

Merriman  and  Brooks's  Handbook  for  Surveyors i6mo,  morocco,  oo 

Nugent's  Plane  Surveying 8vo,  3  50 

Ogden's  Sewer  Design i2mo,  2  oo 

Patton's  Treatise  on  Civil  Engineering 8vo  half  leather,  7  50 

Reed's  Topographical  Drawing  and  Sketching 4to,  5  oo 

RideaPs  Sewage  and  the  Bacterial  Purification  of  Sewage 8vo,  3  50 

Siebert  and  Biggin's  Modern  Stone-cutting  and  Masonry 8vo,  i  50 

Smith's  Manual  of  Topographical  Drawing.     (McMillan.) 8vo,  2  50 

Sondericker's  Graphic  Statics,  with  Applications  to  Trusses,  Beams,  and  Arches. 

8vo,  2  oo 

Taylor  and  Thompson's  Treatise  on  Concrete,  Plain  and  Reinforced 8vo,  5  oo 

*  Trautwine's  Civil  Engineer's  Pocket-book i6mo,  morocco,  5  oo 

Wait's  Engineering  and  Architectural  Jurisprudence 8vo,  6  oo 

Sheep,  6  50 

Law  of  Operations  Preliminary  to  Construction  in  Engineering  and  Archi- 
tecture  8vo,  5  oo 

Sheep,  5  50 

Law  of  Contracts 8vo,  3  oo 

Warren's  Stereotomy — Problems  in  Stone-cutting 8vo,  2  50 

Webb's  Problems  in  the  Use  and  Adjustment  of  Engineering  Instruments. 

i6mo,  morocco,  i   25 

*  Wheeler  s  Elementary  Course  of  Civil  Engineering 8vo,  4  oo 

Wilson's  Topographic  Surveying 8vo,  3  50 

BRIDGES  AND  ROOFS. 

Boiler's  Practical  Treatise  on  the  Construction  of  Iron  Highway  Bridges.  .8vo,  2  oo 

*  Thames  River  Bridge 4to,  paper,  5  oo 

Burr's  Course  on  the  Stresses  in  Bridges  and  Roof  Trusses,  Arched  Ribs,  and 

Suspension  Bridges 8vo,  3  50 

Burr  and  Talk's  Influence  Lines  for  Bridge  and  Roof  Computations.  .  .  .8vo,  3  oo 

Ihi  Bois's  Mechanics  of  Engineering.     Vol.  II Small  4to,  10  oo 

Foster's  Treatise  on  Wooden  Trestle  Bridges 4to,  5  oo 

Fowler's  Ordinary  Foundations 8vo,  3  50 

Greene's  Roof  Trusses 8vo,  i  25 

Bridge  Trusses 8vo,  2  50 

Arches  in  Wood,  Iron,  and  Stone 8vo,  2  50 

Howe's  Treatise  on  Arches 8vo,  4  oo 

Design  of  Simple  Roof -trusses  in  Wood  and  Steel 8vo,  2  oo 

Johnson,  Bryan,  and  Turneaure's  Theory  and  Practice  in  the  Designing  of 

Modern  Framed  Structures Small  4to,  10  oo 

Merriman  and  Jacoby's  Text-book  on  Roofs  and  Bridges : 

Part  I.     Stresses  in  Simple  Trusses 8vo,  2  50 

Part  n.     Graphic  Statics 8vo,  2  50 

Part  HI.     Bridge  Design 8vo,  2  50 

Part  IV.     Higher  Structures 8vo,  2  50 

Morison's  Memphis  Bridge .^ 4to,  10  oo 

Waddell's  De  Pontlbus,  a  Pocket-book  for  Bridge  Engineers.  .  i6mo,  morocco,  3  oo 

Specifications  for  Steel  Bridges .  .  i2mo,  i  25 

"Wood's  Treatise  on  the  Theory  of  the  Construction  of  Bridges  and  Roofs .  . 8vo,  2  c^ 
Wright's  Designing  of  Draw-spans: 

Part  I.     Plate-girder  Draws 8vo,  2  50 

Part  n.     Riveted-truss  and  Pin-connected  Long-span  Draws 8vo,  2  50 

Two  parts  in  one  volume 8vo,  3  50 

6 


HYDRALLICS. 

Bazin's  Experiments  upon  the  Contraction  of  the  Liquid  Vein  Issuing  from 

an  Orifice.     (Trautwine.) 8vo,  2  oo 

Bovey's  Treatise  on  Hydraulics 8vo,  5  oo 

Church's  Mechanics  of  Engineering 8vo,  6  oo 

Diagrams  of  Mean  Velocity  of  Water  in  Open  Channels paper,  i  50 

Coffin's  Graphical  Solution  of  Hydraulic  Problems i6mo,  morocco,  2  50 

Flather's  Dynamometers,  and  the  Measurement  of  Power i2mo,  3  oo 

Folwell's  Water-supply  Engineering 8vo,  4  oo 

Frizell's  Water-power 8vo,  5  oo 

Fuertes's  Water  and  Public  Health i2mo,  i  50 

Water-filtration  Works: i2mo,  2  50 

Ganguillet  and  Kutter's  General  Formula  for  the  Uniform  Flow  of  Water  in 

Rivers  and  Other  Channels.     (Hering  and  Trau   vine.) 8vo  4  oo 

Hazen's  Filtration  of  Public  Water-supply 8vo,  3  oo 

Hazlehurst's  Towers  and  Tanks  for  Water-works 8vo,  2  50 

Herschel's  115  Experiments  on  the  Carrying  Capacity  of  Large,  Riveted,  Metal 

Conduits 8vo,  2  oo 

Mason's  Water-supply.     (Considered  Principally  from  a  Sanitary  Standpoint.) 

8vo,  4  oo 

Merriman's  Treatise  on  Hydraulics 8vo,  5  oo 

*  Michie's  Elements  of  Analytical  Mechanics 8vo,  4  oo 

Schuyler's   Reservoirs  for  Irrigation,  Water-power,   and   Domestic   Water- 
supply Large  8vo,  5  oo 

**  Thomas  and  Watt's  Improvement  of  Rivers.     (Post.,  440.  additional. ).4to,  6  oo 

Turneaure  and  Russell's  Public  Water-supplies 8vo,  5  oo 

Wegmann's  Design  and  Construction  of  Dams 4to,  5  oo 

Water-supply  of  the  City  of  New  York  from  1658  to  1895 4to,  10  oo 

Wilson's  Irrigation  Engineering .  Small  8vo,  4  oo 

Wolff's  Windmill  as  a  Prime  Mover , 8vo,  3  oo 

Wood's  Turbines , 8vo,  2  50 

Elements  of  Analytical  Mechanics ,    8vo,  3  oo 

MATERIALS  OF  ENGINEERING. 

Baker's  Treatise  on  Masonry  Construction <.  - ,  . .  8vo,  5  oo 

Roads  and  Pavements ,  .   8vo,  5  oo 

Black's  United  States  Public  Works Oblong  4to»  5  oo 

Bovey's  Strength  of  Materials  and  Theory  of  Structures 8vo,  7  50 

Burr's  Elasticity  and  Resistance  of  the  Materials  of  Engineering 8vo,  7  50 

Byrne's  Highway  Construction 8vo,  5  oo 

Inspection  of  the  Materials  and  Workmanship  Employed  in  Construction. 

i6mo,  3  oo 

Church's  Mechanics  of  Engineering 8vo,  6  oo 

Du  Bois's  Mechanics  of  Engineering.     VoL  I Small  4to,  7  50 

Johnson's  Materials  of  Construction Large  8vo,  6  oo 

Fowler's  Ordinary  Foundations 8vo,  3  50 

Keep's  Cast  Iron 8vo,  2  50 

Lanza's  Applied  Mechanics 8vo,  7  50 

Marten's  Handbook  on  Testing  Materials.     (Henning.)     2  vols 8vo,  7  50 

Merrill's  Stones  for  Building  and  Decoration 8vo,  5  oo 

Merriman's  Text-book  on  the  Mechanics  of  Materials 8vo,  4  oo 

Strength  of  Materials i2mo,  i  oo 

Metcalf's  Steel.     A  Manual  for  Steel-users i2mo,  2  oo 

Patton's  Practical  Treatise  on  Foundations .. -8vo,  5  oo 

Richardson's  Modern  Asphalt  Pavements 8vo,  3  oo 

Richey's  Handbook  for  Superintendents  of  Construction ibrno,  mor.,  4  oo 

Rockwell's  Roads  and  Pavements  in  France i2mo,  i  25 

7 


Sabin's  Industrial  and  Artistic  Technology  of  Paints  and  Varnish 8vo,  3  oo 

Smith's  Materials  of  Machines i2mo,  i  oo 

Snow's  Principal  Species  of  Wood 8vo,  3  50 

Spalding's  Hydraulic  Cement i2mo,  2  oo 

Text-book  on  Roads  and  Pavements ".  .  I2mo,  2  oo 

Taylor  and  Thompson's  Treatise  on  Concrete,  Plain  and  Reinforced 8vo,  5  oo 

Thurston's  Materials  of  Engineering.     3  Parts 8vo,  8  oo 

Part  I.     Non-metallic  Materials  of  Engineering  and  Metallurgy 8vo,  2  oo 

Part  II.     Iron  and  Steel 8vo,  3  50 

Part  III.     A  Treatise  on  Brasses,  Bronzes,  and  Other  Alloys  and  their 

Constituents 8vo,  2  50 

Thurston's  Text-book  of  the  Materials  of  Construction 8vo,  5  oo 

Tillson's  Street  Pavements  and  Paving  Materials 8vo,  4  oo 

Waddell's  De  Pontibus.    ( A  Pocket-book  for  Bridge  Engineers.).  •  i6mo,  mor.,  3  oo 

Specifications  for  Stc  i  Bridges i2mo,  i  25 

Wood's  (De  V.)  Treatise  on  the  Resistance  of  Materials,  and  an  Appendix  on 

the  Preservation  of  Timber 8vo,  2  oo 

Wood's  (De  V.)  Elements  of  Analytical  Mechanics 8vo,  3  oo 

Wood's  (M.  P.)  Rustless  Coatings:    Corrosion  and  Electrolysis  of  Iron  and 

SteeL 8vo,  4  oo 

RAILWAY  ENGINEERING. 

Andrew's  Handbook  for  Street  Railway  Engineers 3x5  inches,  morocco,  i  25 

Berg's  Buildings  and  Structures  of  American  Railroads 4to,  5  oo 

Brook's  Handbook  of  Street  Railroad  Location i6mo,  morocco,  i  50 

Butt's  Civil  Engineer's  Field-book i6mo,  morocco,  2  50 

Crandall's  Transition  Curve i6mo,  morocco,  i  50 

Railway  and  Other  Earthwork  Tables 8vo,  i  50 

Dawson's  "Engineering"  and  Electric  Traction  Pocket-book.  ,i6mo,  morocco,  5  oo 

Dredge's  History  of  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad:    (1879) Paper,  5  oo 

*  Drinker's  Tunnelling,  Explosive  Compounds,  and  Rock  Drills. 4to,  half  mor.,  25  oo 

Fisher's  Table  of  Cubic  Yards Cardboard,  25 

Godwin's  Railroad  Engineers'  Field-book  and  Explorers'  Guide.  .  .  i6mo,  mor.,  2  50 

Howard's  Transition  Curve  Field-book i6mo,  morocco,  i  50 

Hudson's  Tables  for  Calculating  the  Cubic  Contents  of  Excavations  and  Em- 
bankments  8vo,  i  oo 

Molitor  and  Beard's  Manual  for  Resident  Engineers i6mo,  i  oo 

Nagle's  Field  Manual  for  Railroad  Engineers i6mo,  morocco,  3  oo 

Philbrick's  Field  Manual  for  Engineers i6mo,  morocco,  3  oo 

Searles's  Field  Engineering i6mo,  morocco,  3  oo 

Railroad  Spiral i6mo,  morocco,  i  50 

Taylor's  Prismoidal  Formulae  and  Earthwork 8vo,  i  50 

*  Trautwine's  Method  of  Calculating  the  Cube  Contents  of  Excavations  and 

Embankments  by  the  Aid  of  Diagrams 8vo,  2  00 

The  Field  Practice  of  Laying  Out  Circular  Curves  for  Railroads. 

I2mo,  morocco,  2  50 

Cross-section  Sheet Paper,  23 

Webb's  Railroad  Construction i6mo,  morocco,  5  oo 

Wellington's  Economic  Theory  of  the  Location  of  Railways Small  8vo,  5  oo 

DRAWING. 

Barr's  Kinematics  of  Machinery 8vo,  2  50 

*  Bartlett's  Mechanical  Drawing 8vo,  3  oo 

*  "                    "                    "        Abridged  Ed 8vo,  150 

Coolidge's  Manual  of  Drawing 8vo,  paper  i  oo 

Coolidge  and  Freeman's  Elements  of  General  Drafting  for  Mechanical  Engi- 
neers  Oblong  4to,  2  50 

Durley's  Kinematics  of  Machines 8vo,  4  oo 

Emch's  Introduction  to  Projective  Geometry  and  its  Applications 8vo.  2  50 

8 


Hill's  Text-book  on  Shades  and  Shadows,  and  Perspective 8vo,  2  oo 

Jamison's  Elements  of  Mechanical  Drawing 8vo,  2  50 

Jones's  Machine  Design : 

Part  I.     Kinematics  of  Machinery 8vo,  i  50 

Part  II.     Form,  Strength,  and  Proportions  of  Parts 8vo,  3  oo 

MacCord's  Elements  of  Descriptive  Geometry 8vo,  3  oo 

Kinematics;  or,  Practical  Mechanism 8vo,  5  oo 

Mechanical  Drawing 4to,  4  oo 

Velocity  Diagrams 8vo,  i  50 

*  Mahan's  Descriptive  Geometry  and  Stone-cutting 8vo,  i  50 

Industrial  Drawing.     (Thompson.) 8vo,  3  50 

Moyer's  Descriptive  Geometry 8vo,  2  oo 

Reed's  Topographical  Drawing  and  Sketching 4to,  5  oo 

Reid's  Course  in  Mechanical  Drawing 8vo,  2  oo 

Text-book  of  Mechanical  Drawing  and  Elementary  Machine  Design. 8vo,  3  oo 

Robinson's  Principles  of  Mechanism 8vo,  3  oo 

Schwamb  and  Merrill's  Elements  of  Mechanism 8vo,  3  oo 

Smith's  Manual  of  Topographical  Drawing.     (McMillan.) 8vo,  2  50 

Warren's  Elements  of  Plane  and  Solid  Free-hand  Geometrical  Drawing.  i2mo,  oo 

25 
5» 


Drafting  Instruments  and  Operations 

Manual  of  Elementary  Projection  Drawing i2mo, 

Manual  of  Elementary  Problems  in  the  Linear  Perspective  of  Form  and 


Shadow I2mo,  oo 

Plane  Problems  in  Elementary  Geometry I2mo,  25 

Primary  Geometry I2mo,  75 

Elements  of  Descriptive  Geometry,  Shadows,  and  Perspective 8vo,  3  50 

General  Problems  of  Shades  and  Shadows 8vo,  3  oo 

Elements  of  Machine  Construction  and  Drawing 8vo,  7  50 

Problems,  Theorems,  and  Examples  in  Descriptive  Geometry 8vo,  2  50 

Weisbach's  Kinematics  and  Power  of  Transmission.    (Hermann  and  Klein)8vo,  5  oo 

Whelpley's  Practical  Instruction  in  the  Ait  of  Letter  Engraving.  ......  i2mo,  2  oo 

Wilson's  (H.  M.)  Topographic  Surveying 8vo,  3  50 

Wilson's  (V.  T.)  Free-hand  Perspective .8vo,  2  50 

Wilson's  (V.  T.)  Free-hand  Lettering 8vo,  i  oo 

Woolf's  Elementary  Course  in  Descriptive  Geometry Large  8vo,  3  oo 


ELECTRICITY  AND  PHYSICS. 

Anthony  and  Brackett's  Text-book  of  Physics.     (Magie.) Small  8vo,  3  oo 

Anthony's  Lecture-notes  on  the  Theory  of  Electrical  Measurements I2mo,  i  oo 

Benjamin's  History  of  Electricity 8vo,  3  oo 

Voltaic  Cell 8vo,  3  oo 

Classen's  Quantitative  Chemical  Analysis  by  Electrolysis.     (Boltwood.).8vo,  3  oo 

Crehore  and  Squier's  Polarizing  Photo-chronograph 8vo,  3  oo 

Dawson's  "Engineering"  and  Electric  Traction  Pocket-book.  i6mo,  morocco,  5  oo 
Dolezalek's   Theory   of   the    Lead   Accumulator    (Storage    Battery).      (Von 

Ende.) i2mo,  2  50 

Duhem's  Thermodynamics  and  Chemistry.     (Burgess.).  . 8vo,  4  oo 

Flather's  Dynamometers,  and  the  Measurement  of  Power I2mo,  3  oo 

Gilbert's  De  Magnete.     (Mottelay.) 8vo,  a  50 

Hanchett's  Alternating  Currents  Explained i2mo,  i  oo 

Bering's  Ready  Reference  Tables  (Conversion  Factors) i6mo,  morocco,  2  50 

Holman's  Precision  of  Measurements 8vo,  2  oo 

Telescopic   Mirror-scale  Method,  Adjustments,  and  Tests Large  8vo,  75 

Kinzbrunner's  Testing  of  Continuous-Current  Machines 8vo,  2  oo 

Landauer's  Spectrum  Analysis.     (Tingle.) 8vo,  3  oo 

Le  Chatelien's  High-temperature  Measurements.  (Boudouard — Burgess.)  I2mo,  3  oo 

Lob's  Electrolysis  and  Electrosynthesis  of  Organic  Compounds.  (Lorenz.)  i2mo,  i  ot> 


-*  Lyons's  Treatise  on  Electromagnetic  Phenomena.  Vols.  I.  and  II.  8vo,  each,  6  oo 

*  Michie's  Elements  of  Wave  Motion  Relating  to  Sound  and  Light 8vo,  4  oo 

Niaudet's  Elementary  Treatise  on  Electric  Batteries.     (Fishback.) lamo,  2  50 

*  Rosenberg's  Electrical  Engineering.     (Haldane  Gee — Kinzbrunner.).  .  .8vo,  i  50 

Ryan,  Norris,  and  Hoxie's  Electrical  Machinery.     VoL  1 8vo,  2  50 

Thurston's  Stationary  Steam-engines 8vo,  2  50 

*  Tillman's  Elementary  Lessons  in  Heat 8vo,  i  50 

Tory  and  Pitcher's  Manual  of  Laboratory  Physics Small  8vo,  2  oo 

Ulke's  Modern  Electrolytic  Copper  Refining 8vo,  3  oo 

LAW. 

*  Davis's  Elements  of  Law 8vo,  2  50 

*  Treatise  on  the  Military  Law  of  United  States 8vo,  7  oo 

Sheep,  7  50 

Manual  for  Courts-martial i6mo,  morocco,  i  50 

Wait's  Engineering  and  Architectural  Jurisprudence 8vo,  6  oo 

Sheep,  6  50 

Law  of  Operations  Preliminary  to  Construction  in  Engineering  and  Archi- 
tecture  8vo,  5  oo 

Sheep,  5  50 

Law  of  Contracts 8vo,  3  oo 

Winthrop's  Abridgment  of  Military  Law I2mo,  2  50 

MANUFACTURES. 

Bernadou's  Smokeless  Powder — Nitro-cellulose  and  Theory  of  the  Cellulose 

Molecule i2mo,  2  50 

Holland's  Iron  Founder • I2mo,  2  50 

"  The  Iron  Founder,"  Supplement i2mo,  2  50 

Encyclopedia  of  Founding  and  Dictionary  of  Foundry  Terms  Used  in  the 

Practice  of  Moulding I2mo,  3  oo 

Eissler's  Modern  High  Explosives 8vo,  4  oo 

Effront's  Enzymes  and  their  Applications.     (Prescott.) 8vo,  3  oo 

Fitzgerald's  Boston  Machinist i2mo,  i  oo 

Ford's  Boiler  Making  for  Boiler  Makers i8mo,  i  oo 

Hopkin's  Oil-chemists'  Handbook 8vo,  3  oo 

Keep's  Cast  Iron 8vo,  2  50 

Leach's  The  Inspection  and  Analysis  of  Food  with  Special  Reference  to  State 

Control. Large  8vo,  7  50 

Matthews's  The  Textile  Fibres 8vo,  3  50 

Metcalf's  Steel.     A  Manual  for  Steel-users i2mo,  2  oo 

Metcalfe's  Cost  of  Manufactures — And  the  Administration  of  Workshops. 8vo,  5  oo 

Meyer's  Modern  Locomotive  Construction 4to,  10  oo 

Morse's  Calculations  used  in  Cane-sugar  Factories i6mo,  morocco,  i  50 

*  Reisig's  Guide  to  Piece-dyeing 8vo,  25  oo 

Sabin's  Industrial  and  Artistic  Technology  of  Paints  and  Varnish 8vo,  3  oo 

Smith's  Press-working  of  Metals 8vo,  3  oo 

Spalding's  Hydraulic  Cement i2mo,  2  oo 

Spencer's  Handbook  for  Chemists  of  Beet-sugar  Houses.    ...  i6mo,  morocco,  3  on 

Handbook  for  Sugar  Manufacturers  and  their  Chemists.  . i6mo,  morocco,  2  oo 

Taylor  and  Thompson's  Treatise  on  Concrete,  Plain  and  Reinforced 8vo,  5  oo 

Thurston's  Manual  of  Steam-boilers,  their  Designs,  Construction  and  Opera- 
tion  8vo,  5  oo 

*  Walke's  Lectures  on  Explosives 8vo,  4  oo 

Ware's  Manufacture  of  Sugar.     (In  press.) 

West's  American  Foundry  Practice I2mo,  2  50 

Moulder's  Text-book i2mo,  2  50 

10 


Wolff's  Windmill  as  a  Prime  Mover 8vo,    3  oo 

Wood's  Rustless  Coatings:   Corrosion  and  Electrolysis  of  Iron  and  Steel.  .8vo,    4  oo 


MATHEMATICS. 

Baker's  Elliptic  Functions 8vo,    i  50 

*  Bass's  Elements  of  Differential  Calculus i2mo,    4  oo 

Briggs's  Elements  of  Plane  Analytic  Geometry i2mo,     i«oo 

Compton's  Manual  of  Logarithmic  Computations i2mo, 

Davis's  Introduction  to  the  Logic  of  Algebra 8vo, 

*  Dickson's  College  Algebra Large  i2mo, 

*  Introduction  to  the  Theory  of  Algebraic  Equations Large  i2mo, 


Emch's  Introduction  to  Projective  Geometry  and  its  Applications 8vo, 

Halsted's  Elements  of  Geometry 8vo, 

Elementary  Synthetic  Geometry „ 8vo, 


50 
So 
50 
25 
50 
75 
50 

Rational  Geometry i2mo,        7S 

^Johnson's  (J.  B.)  Three-place  Logarithmic  Tables:   Vest-pocket  size. paper,         15 

100  copies  for    5  oo 

*  Mounted  on  heavy  cardboard,  8X 10  inches,        25 

10  copies  for    2  oo 

Johnson's  (W.  W.)  Elementary  Treatise  on  Differential  Calculus.  .Smah  8vo,     ^  oo 
Johnson's  (W.  W.)  Elementary  Treatise  on  the  Integral  Calculus. Small  8vo,     i  50 

Johnson's  (W.  W.)  Curve  Tracing  in  Cartesian  Co-ordinates i2mo,     i  oo 

Johnson's  (W.  W.)  Treatise  on  Ordinary  and  Partial  Differential  Equations. 

Small  8vo,    3  50 
Johnson's  (W.  W.)  Theory  of  Errors  and  the  Method  of  Least  Squares.  i2mo,     i  50 

*  Johnson's  (W.  W.)  Theoretical  Mechanics i2mo,    3  oo 

.Laplace's  Philosophical  Essay  on  Probabilities.     (Truscott  and  Emory.) .  i2mo,    2  oo 

*  Ludlow  and  Bass.     Elements  of  Trigonometry  and  Logarithmic  and  Other 

Tables 8vo,    3  oo 

Trigonometry  and  Tables  published  separately Each,    2  oo 

*  Ludlow's  Logarithmic  and  Trigonometric  Tables 8vo,    i  oo 

Maurer's  Technical  Mechanics 8v . ,    4  oo 

Merriman  and  Woodward's  Higher  Mathematics. 8yo,    5  oo 

Merriman's  Method  of  Least  Squares 8vo,    2  oo 

Rice  and  Johnson's  Elementary  Treatise  on  the  Differential  Calculus. .  Sm.  8vo,    3  oo 

Differential  and  Integral  Calculus.     2  vols.  in  one Small  8vo,    2  50 

Wood's  Elements  of  Co-ordinate  Geometry 8vo,    2  oo 

Trigonometry:  Analytical,  Plane,  and  Spherical 12010,     i  oo 


MECHANICAL  ENGINEERING. 

MATERIALS  OF  ENGINEERING,  STEAM-ENGINES  AND  BOILERS. 

Bacon's  Forge  Practice i2mo,  i  50 

Baldwin's  Steam  Heating  for  Buildings i2mo,  2  50 

Barr's  Kinematics  of  Machinery 8vo,  2  50 

*  Bartlett's  Mechanical  Drawing 8vo,  3  oo 

*  "  "  "        Abridged  Ed 8vo,     150 

Benjamin's  Wrinkles  and  Recipes i2mo,    2  oo 

Carpenter's  Experimental  Engineering 8vo,    6  oo 

Heating  and  Ventilating  Buildings 8vo,    4  oo 

Gary's  Smoke  Suppression  in  Plants  using  Bituminous  Coal.     (In  Prepara- 
tion.) 

Clerk's  Gas  and  Oil  Engine Small  8vo,    4  oo 

Coolidge's  Manual  of  Drawing 8vo,  paper,     i  oo 

Coolidge  and  Freeman's  Elements  of  General  Drafting  for  Mechanical  En- 
gineers. . . . , Oblong  4to,    2  50 

11 


Cromwell's  Treatise  on  Toothed  Gearing i2mo,  i  50 

Treatise  on  Belts  and  Pulleys i2mo,  i  50 

Durley's  Kinematics  of  Machines 8vo,  4  oo 

Flather's  Dynamometers  and  the  Measurement  of  Power. i2mo,  3  oo 

^  Rope  Driving i2mo,  2  oo 

Gill's  Gas  and  Fuel  Analysis  for  Engineers i2mo,  i  25 

Hall's  Car  Lubrication i2mo,  i  oo 

Bering's  Ready  Reference  Tables  (Conversion  Factors) i6mo,  morocco,  2  50 

Button's  The  Gas  Engine 8vo,  5  oo 

Jamison's  Mechanical  Drawing 8vo,  2  50 

Jones's  Machine  Design: 

Part  I.     Kinematics  of  Machinery 8vo,  i  50 

Part  II.     Form,  Strength,  and  Proportions  of  Parts 8vo,  3  oo 

Kent's  Mechanical  Engineers'  Pocket-book i6mo,  morocco,  5  oo 

Kerr's  Power  and  Power  Transmission 8vo,  2  oo 

Leonard's  Machine  Shop,  Tools,  and  Methods.     (In  press.) 

Lorenz's  Modern  Refrigerating  Machinery.     (Pope,  Haven,  and  Dean.)     (In  press.) 

MacCord's  Kinematics;   or,  Practical  Mechanism 8vo,  5  oo 

Mechanical  Drawing 4to,  4  oo 

Velocity  Diagrams 8vo,  i  50 

Mahan's  Industrial  Drawing.     (Thompson.) 8vo,  3  50 

Poole's  Calorific  Power  of  Fuels 8vo,  3  oo 

Reid's  Course  in  Mechanical  Drawing 8vo,  2  oo 

Text-book  of  Mechanical  Drawing  and  Elementary  Machine  Design. 8vo,  3  oe 

Richard's  Compressed  Air i2mo,  i  50 

Robinson's  Principles  of  Mechanism 8vo,  3  oo 

Schwamb  and  Merrill's  Elements  of  Mechanism 8vo,  3  oo 

Smith's  Press-working  of  Metals 8vo,  3  oo 

Thurston's   Treatise   on   Friction  and   Lost  Work   in   Machinery   and   Mill 

Work 8vo,  3  oo 

Animal  as  a  Machine  and  Prime  Motor,  and  the  Laws  of  Energetics .  i2mo,  i  oo 

Warren's  Elements  of  Machine  Construction  and  Drawing 8vo,  7  50 

Weisbach's    Kinematics    and    the    Power    of    Transmission.     (Herrmann — 

Klein.) 8vo,  5  oo 

Machinery  of  Transmission  and  Governors.     (Herrmann — Klein.).  .8vo,  5  oo 

Wolff' s  Windmill  as  a  Prime  Mover 8vo,  3  oo 

Wood's  Turbines 8vo,  2  50 


MATERIALS   OF   ENGINEERING. 

Bovey's  Strength  of  Materials  and  Theory  of  Structures 8vo,  7  50 

Burr's  Elasticity  and  Resistance  of  the  Materials  of  Engineering.    6th  Edition. 

Reset 8vo,  7  50 

Church's  Mechanics  of  Engineering 8vo,  6  oo 

Johnson's  Materials  of  Construction 8vo,  6  oo 

Keep's  Cast  Iron 8vo,  2  50 

Lanza's  Applied  Mechanics 8vo,  7  50 

Martens's  Handbook  on  Testing  Materials.     (Henning.) 8vo,  7  50 

Merriman's  Text-book  on  the  Mechanics  of  Materials 8vo,  4  oo 

Strength  of  Materials I2mo,  i  oo 

Metcalf's  Steel.     A  manual  for  Steel-users I2mo,  2  oo 

Sabin's  Industrial  and  Artistic  Technology  of  Paints  and  Varnish 8vo,  3  oo 

Smith's  Materials  of  Machines I2mo,  i  oo 

IThurston's  Materials  of  Engineering 3  vols.,  8vo,  8  oo 

Part  II.     Iron  and  Steel 8vo,  3  So 

Part  IH.     A  Treatise  on  Brasses,  Bronzes,  and  Other  Alloys  and  their 

Constituents 8vo,  2  50 

Text-book  of  the  Materials  of  Construction 8vo,  5  ot 

12 


Wood's  (De  V.)  Treatise  on  the  Resistance  of  Materials  and  an  Appendix  on 

the  Preservation  of  Timber 8vo,    2  oo 

Wood's  (De  V.)  Elements  of  Analytical  Mechanics 8vo,    3  oo 

food's  (M.  P.)  Rustless  Coatings:    Corrosion  and  Electrolysis  of  Iron  and 

Steel. 8vo,    4  oo 


STEAM-ENGINES  AND  BOILERS. 

Berry's  Temperature-entropy  Diagram I2mo,  i  25 

Carnot's  Reflections  on  the  Motive  Power  of  Heat.     (Thurston.) i2mo,  i  50 

Dawson's  "  Engineering"  and  Electric  Traction  Pocket-book. . .  .x6mo,  mor.,  5  oo 

Ford's  Boiler  Making  for  Boiler  Makers i8mo,  i  oo 

Goss's  Locomotive  Sparks 8vo,  2  oo 

Hemenway's  Indicator  Practice  and  Steam-engine  Economy i2mo,  2  oo 

Button's  Mechanical  Engineering  of  Power  Plants 8vo,  5  oo 

Heat  and  Heat-engines 8vo,  5  oo 

Kent's  Steam  boiler  Economy 8vo,  4  oo 

Kneass's  Practice  and  Theory  of  the  Injector 8vo,  i  so 

MacCord's  Slide-valves 8vo,  2  oo 

Meyer's  Modern  Locomotive  Construction 4to,  10  oo 

Peabody's  Manual  of  the  Steam-engine  Indicator i2mo.  i  50 

Tables  of  the  Properties  of  Saturated  Steam  and  Other  Vapors 8vo,  i  oo 

Thermodynamics  of  the  Steam-engine  and  Other  Heat-engines 8vo,  5  oo 

Valve-gears  for  Steam-engines 8vo,  2  50 

Peabody  and  Miller's  Steam-boilers , 8vo,  4  oo 

Pray's  Twenty  Years  with  the  Indicator Large  8vo,  2  50 

Pupin's  Thermodynamics  of  Reversible  Cycles  in  Gases  and  Saturated  Vapors. 

(Osterberg.) i2mo,  i  25 

Reagan's  Locomotives:  Simple   Compound,  and  Electric i2mo,  2  50 

Rontgen's  Principles  of  Thermodynamics.     (Du  Bois.) 8vo,  5  oo 

Sinclair's  Locomotive  Engine  Running  and  Management 121110,  2  oo 

Smart's  Handbook  of  Engineering  Laboratory  Practice i2mo,  2  50 

%iow's  Steam-boiler  Practice 8vo,  3  oo 

Spangler's  Valve-gears 8vo,  2  50 

Notes  on  Thermodynamics i2mo,  i  oo 

Spangler,  Greene,  and  Marshall's  Elements  of  Steam-engineering 8vo,  3  oo 

Thurston's  Handy  Tables 8vo,  i  50 

Manual  of  the  Steam-engine 2  vols.,  8vo,  10  oo 

Part  I.     History,  Structure,  and  Theory '. 8vo,  6  oo 

Part  H.     Design,  Construction,  and  Operation 8vo,  6  oo 

Handbook  of  Engine  and  Boiler  Trials,  and  the  Use  of  the  Indicator  and 

the  Prony  Brake 8vo,  5  oo 

Stationary  Steam-engines 8vo,  2  50 

Steam-boiler  Explosions  in  Theory  and  in  Practice i2mo,  i  50 

Manual  of  Steam-boilers,  their  Designs,  Construction,  and  Operation 8vo,  5  oo 

Weisbach's  Heats  Steam,  and  Steam-engines.     (Du  Bois.) 8vo,  5  oo 

Whitham's  Steam-engine  Design 8vo,  5  oo 

Wilson's  Treatise  on  Steam-boilers.     (Flather.) i6mo,  2  50 

Wood's  Thermodynamics,  Heat  Motors,  and  Refrigerating  Machines. .  .8vo,  4  oo 


MECHANICS  AND  MACHINERY. 

Bart's  Kinematics  of  Machinery 8vo,  2  50 

Bovey's  Strength  of  Materials  and  Theory  of  Structures 8vo,  7  50 

Chase's  The  Art  of  Pattern-making I2mo,  2  50 

Church's  Mechanics  of  Engineering 8vo,  6  oo 

13 


Church's  Notes  and  Examples  in  Mechanics 8vo,  2  oo 

Compton's  First  Lessons  in  Metal-working i2mo,  50 

Compton  and  De  Groodt's  The  Speed  Lathe i2mo,  50 

Cromwell's  Treatise  on  Toothed  Gearing i2mo,  50 

Treatise  on  Belts  and  Pulleys i2mo,  50 

Dana's  Text-book  of  Elementary  Mechanics  for  Colleges  and  Schools.  .  i2mo,  50 

Dingey's  Machinery  Pattern  Making i2mo,  oo 

Dredge's  Record  of  the  Transportation  Exhibits  Building  of  the   World's 

Columbian  Exposition  of  1893 4to  half  morocco,  5  oo 

Du  Bois's  Elementary  Principles  of  Mechanics: 

VoL      I.     Kinematics 8vo,  3  50 

Vol.    II.     Statics 8vo,  4  oo 

VoL  III.     Kinetics 8vo,  3  50 

Mechanics  of  Engineering.     Vol.    I Small  4to,  7  50 

VoL  II Small  4to,  10  oo 

Durley's  Kinematics  of  Machines 8vo,  4  oo 

Fitzgerald's  Boston  Machinist i6mo,  i  oo 

Flather's  Dynamometers,  and  the  Measurement  of  Power. 12 mo,  3  oo 

Rope  Driving i2mo,  2  oo 

Goss's  Locomotive  Sparks 8vo,  2  oo 

Hall's  Car  Lubrication i2mo,  i  oo 

Holly's  Art  of  Saw  Filing i8mo,  75 

James's  Kinematics  of  a  Point  and  the  Rational  Mechanics  of  a  Particle.  Sm.8vo,2  oo 

*  Johnson's  (W.  W.)  Theoretical  Mechanics i2mo,  3  oo 

Johnson's  (L.  J.)  Statics  by  Graphic  and  Algebraic  Methods 8vo,  2  oo 

Jones's  Machine  Design : 

Part   I.     Kinematics  of  Machinery 8vo,  i  50 

Part  n.     Form,  Strength,  and  Proportions  of  Parts 8vo,  3  oo 

Kerr's  Power  and  Power  Transmission 8vo,  2  oo 

Lanza's  Applied  Mechanics. 8vo,  7  50 

Leonard's  Machine  Shop,  Tools, -and  Methods.     (In  press.) 

lorenz's  Modern  Refrigerating  Machinery.      (Pope,  Haven,  and  Dean.)      (In  press.) 

MacCord's  Kinematics;  or,  Practical  Mechanism 8vo,  5  oo 

Velocity  Diagrams. 8vo,  i  50 

Maurer's  Technical  Mechanics 8vo,  4  oo 

Merriman's  Text-book  on  the  Mechanics  of  Materials 8vo,  4  oo 

*  Elements  of  Mechanics i2mo,  i  oo 

*  Michie's  Elements  of  Analytical  Mechanics 8vo,  4  oo 

Reagan's  Locomotives:  Simple,  Compound,  and  Electric I2H1O,  2  50 

Reid's  Course  in  Mechanical  Drawing 8vo,  2  oo 

Text-book  of  Mechanical  Drawing  and  Elementary  Machine  Design. 8vo,  3  oo 

Richards's  Compressed  Air i2mo,  i  50 

Robinson's  Principles  of  Mechanism 8vo,  3  oo 

Ryan,  Norris,  and  Hoxie's  Electrical  Machinery.     VoL  1 8vo,  2  50 

Schwamb  and  Merrill's  Elements  of  Mechanism 8vo,  3  oo 

Sinclair's  Locomotive-engine  Running  and  Management I2mo,  2  oo 

Smith's  (0.)  Press-working  of  Metals. 8vo,  3  oo 

Smith's  (A.  W.)  Materials  of  Machines i2mo,  i  oo 

Spangler,  Greene,  and  Marshall's  Elements  of  Steam-engineering 8vo,  3  oo 

Thurston's  Treatise  on  Friction  and  Lost  Work  in    Machinery  and    Mill 

Work 8vo,  3  oo 

Animal  as  a  Machine  and  Prime  Motor,  and  the  Laws  of  Energetics. 

i2mo,  i  oo 

Warren's  Elements  of  Machine  Construction  and  Drawing 8vo,  7  50 

Weisbach's  Kinematics  and  Power  of  Transmission.   ( Herrmann — Klein. ) .  8vo ,  5  oo 

Machinery  of  Transmission  and  Governors.      (Herrmann — Klein. ).8vo,  5  oo 

Wood's  Elements  of  Analytical  Mechanics 8vo,  3  oo 

Principles  of  Elementary  Mechanics i2mo,  i  25 

Turbines 8vo,  2  50 

The  World's  Columbian  Exposition  of  1893 4*0,  i  oo 

14 


METALLURGY. 

Egleston's  Metallurgy  of  Silver,  Gold,  and  Mercury: 

Vol.    I.     Silver 8vo>  750 

Vol.  II.     Gold  and  Mercury 8vo,  7  50 

**  Iles's  Lead-smelting.     (Postage  9  cents  additional.) I2mo,  2  50 

Keep's  Cast  Iron 8vo,  2  go 

Kunhardt's  Practice  of  Ore  Dressing  in  Europe ' 8vo,  i  go 

Le  Chatelier's  High- temperature  Measuremepts.  (Boudouard — Burgess.)i2mo,  3  oo 

Metcalf's  Steel.     A  Manual  for  Steel-users-     , I2mo,  2  oo 

Smith's  Materials  of  Machines 12010,  i  oo 

Thurston's  Materials  of  Engineering.     In  Three  Parts 8vo,  8  oo 

Part    II.     Iron  and  Steel 8vo,  3  50 

Part  III.     A  Treatise  on  Brasses,  Bronzes,  and  Other  Alloys  and  their 

Constituents 8vo,  2  50 

Ulke's  Modern  Electrolytic  Copper  Refining 8vo,  3  oo 

MINERALOGY. 

Barringer's  Description  of  Minerals  of  Commercial  Value.    Oblong,  morocco,  2  50 

Boyd's  Resources  of  Southwest  Virginia 8vo.  3  oo 

Map  of  Southwest  Virignia Pocket-book  form.  2  oo 

Brush's  Manual  of  Determinative  Mineralogy.     (Penfield.) 8vo,  4  oo 

Chester's  Catalogue  of  Minerals 8vo,  paper,  i  oo 

Cloth,  i  25 

Dictionary  of  the  Names  of  Minerals 8vo,  3  50 

Dana's  System  of  Mineralogy Large  8vo,  half  leather,  12  50 

First  Appendix  to  Dana's  New  "  System  of  Mineralogy.'* Large  8vo,  i  oo 

Text-book  of  Mineralogy 8vo,  4  oo 

Minerals  and  How  to  Study  Them I2mo,  i  50 

Catalogue  of  American  Localities  of  Minerals Large  8vo,  i  oo 

Manual  of  Mineralogy  and  Petrography i2mo,  2  oo 

Douglas's  Untechnical  Addresses  on  Technical  Subjects i2mo,  i  oo 

Eakle's  Mineral  Tables 8vo,  i  25 

Egleston's  Catalogue  of  Minerals  and  Synonyms 8vo,  2  50 

Hussak's  The  Determination  of  Rock-forming  Minerals.    (Smith.). Small  8vo,  2  oo 

Merrill's  Non-metallic  Minerals:   Their  Occurrence  and  Uses 8vo,  4  oo 

*  Pwifield's  Notes  on  Determinative  Mineralogy  and  Record  of  Mineral  Tests. 

8vo,  paper,  o  50 
Rosettbusch's    Microscopical   Physiography   of   the   Rock-making  Minerals. 

(Iddings.) 8vo.  5  oo 

*  Tillman's  Text-book  of  Important  Minerals  and  Rocks 8vo .  2  oo 

Williftxns's  Manual  of  Lithology 8vo,  3  oo 

MINING. 

fceard's  Ventilation  of  Mines -. lamo,  2  50 

Boyd's  Resources  of  Southwest  Virginia 8vo,  3  oo 

Mep  of  Southwest  Virginia Pocket  book  form,  2  oo 

Douglao's  Untechnical  Addresses  on  Technical  Subjects I2mo.  i  oo 

*  Drinker's  Tunneling,  Explosive  Compounds,  and  Rock  Drills.  ,4to,hf.  mor.,  25  oo 

Eissler's  Modern  High  Explosives 8vo,  4  oo 

Fowler's  Sewage  Works  Analyses 12010  2  oo 

Goodyear's  Coal-mines  of  the  Western  Coast  of  the  United  States i2mo,  2  50 

Ihlseng's  Manual  of  Mining 8vo.  5  oo 

**  Iles's  Lead-smelting.     (Postage  QC.  additionaL) I2mo,  2  50 

Kunhardt's  Practice  of  Ore  Dressing  in  Europe 8vo,  i  50 

O'Driscoll's  Notes  on  the  Treatment  of  Gold  Ores 8vo,  2  oo 

*  Walke's  Lectures  on  Explosives 8vo,  4  oo 

Wilson's  Cyanide  Processes izmo,  i  50 

Chiosination  Process I2mo,  i  50 

15 


Wilson's  HydrauL*,  and  Placer  Mining I2mo,     2  oo 

Treatise  on  Practical  and  Theoretical  Mine  Ventilation 12 mo,     i  25 

SANITARY  SCIENCE. 

Folwell's  Sewerage.     (Designing,  Construction,  and  Maintenance) 8vo, 

Water-supply  Engineering 8vo, 

Fuertes's  Water  and  Public  Health i2mo, 

Water-filtration  Works i2mo, 

Gerhard's  Guide  to  Sanitary  House-inspection i6mo, 

Goodrich's  Economic  Disposal  of  Town's  Refuse Demy  8vo,    3  50 

Hazen's  Filtration  of  Public  Water-supplies 8vo,    3  oo 

Leach's  The  Inspection  and  Analysis  of  Food  with  Special  Reference  to  State 

Control 8vo,    7  50 

Mason's  Water-supply.  (Considered  principally  from  a  Sanitary  Standpoint)  8vo,    4  oo 

Examination  of  Water.     (Chemical  and  Bacteriological.) i2mo,    i  25 

Merriman's  Elements  of  Sanitary  Engineering 8vo,    2  oo 

Ogden's  Sewer  Design I2mo,    2  oo 

Prescott  and  Winslow's  Elements  of  Water  Bacteriology,  with  Special  Refer- 
ence to  Sanitary  Water  Analysis I2mo,    i  25 

*  Price's  Handbook  on  Sanitation I2mo,    i  50 

Richards's  Cost  of  Food.     A  Study  in  Dietaries i2mo,     i  oo 

Cost  of  Living  as  Modified  by  Sanitaiy  Science i2mo,    i  oo 

Richards  and  Woodman's  Air,  Water,  and  Food  from  a  Sanitary  Stand- 
point     8vo,    2  oo 

*  Richards  and  Williams's  The  Dietary  Computer 8vo,    i 

Rideal's  Sewage  and  Bacterial  Purification  of  Sewage 8vo, 

Turneaure  and  Russell's  Public  Water-supplies 8vo, 

Von  Behring's  Suppression  of  Tuberculosis.     (Bolduan.) i2mo, 

Whipple's  Microscopy  of  Drinking-water 8vo, 

Woodhull's  Notes  on  Military  Hygiene i6mo,     i 

MISCELLANEOUS. 

De  Fursac's  Manual  of  Psychiatry.     (Rosanoff  and  Collins.).  . .  .Large  i2mo,    2 
Emmons's  Geological  Guide-book  of  the  Rocky  Mountain  Excursion  of  the 

International  Congress  of  Geologists Large  8vo,     i 

Ferrel's  Popular  Treatise  on  the  Winds 8vo. 

Haines's  American  Railway  Management i2mo, 

Mott's  Composition,  Digestibility,  and  Nutritive  Value  of  Food.  Mounted  chart,    i 

Fallacy  of  the  Present  Theory  of  Sound i6mo, 

Ricketts's  History  of  Rensselaer  Polytechnic  Institute,  1824-1894.  .Small  8vo, 

Rostoski's  Serum  Diagnosis.     (Bolduan.) i2mo, 

Rotherham's  Emphasized  New  Testament Large  8vo, 

Steel's  Treatise  on  the  Diseases  of  the  Dog 8vo, 

Totten's  Important  Question  in  Metrology 8vo,    2 

The  World's  Columbian  Exposition  of  1893 4*0, 

Von  Behring's  Suppression  of  Tuberculosis.     (Bolduan.) i2mo, 

Winslow's  Elements  of  Applied  Microscopy i2mo,     i 

Worcester  and  Atkinson.     Small  Hospitals,  Establishment  and  Maintenance; 

Suggestions  for  Hospital  Architecture :  Plans  for  Small  Hospital .  i2mo,    i 

HEBREW  AND  CHALDEE  TEXT-BOOKS. 

Green's  Elementary  Hebrew  Grammar I2mo,  i 

Hebrew  Chrestomathy 8vo,  2 

Gesenius's  Hebrew  and  Chaldee  Lexicon  te  the  Old  Testament  Scriptures. 

(Tregelles.) Small  4to,  half  morocco,  5 

Lettesis's  Hebrew  Bible 8vo>  2 


AaXV 


STAMPED  BELOW 


AN  INITIAL  FINE  OF  25  CENTS 

WILL  BE  ASSESSED  FOR  FAILURE  TO  RETURN 
THIS  BOOK  ON  THE  DATE  DUE.  THE  PENALTY 
WILL  INCREASE  TO  5O  CENTS  ON  THE  FOURTH 
DAY  AND  TO  $1.OO  ON  THE  SEVENTH  DAY 
OVERDUE. 


MAY     4  1934 


LD  21-100m-7,'33 


YB   10965 


